Wings of Freedom
by VioletDragonian
Summary: When the higher-ups force Levi to take on an apprentice, he goes to meet the newest members of the Survey Corps to choose one. In that group of trainees, he finds a girl that is incredibly different, both in her looks and her suspicious actions. Deciding to take her on as his apprentice, he soon learns her secret, and together they will try everything they can to save humanity.
1. Chapter 1

Levi crossed one leg over the other as he shifted in his seat, studying his fingers with a bored expression before answering the suggestion given to him just moments before in a cold voice. "No."

"Levi, I really think-"

The corporal's eyes snapped up to give Erwin a sharp stare, before interrupting him with "I don't need an apprentice."

Erwin gave just as sharp a stare as he tried again. "No, you don't. But the army does. You're the only person that knows certain fighting techniques, and if you were to die, those would be lost forever. And with the world we live in, any of us could die at any time, including you. You refuse to teach the entire branch, so pick one soldier and teach them. This is not just a suggestion or request, Levi."

"No."

"You don't have a say in this."

"I am pretty sure I do, as I'm the one that has to agree to teach." Levi countered.

"I wouldn't make you do this, but it isn't my decision, so you have to." Erwin told him.

"Ugh." Levi pressed a hand against his forehead, willing the throbbing headache away. "Fine. Who do I have to teach?"

"It's your choice, actually. I thought you might choose Jaeger, since-"

For the second time, Levi cut him off. "No. I will not be teaching that brat my techniques. They're not even his style of fighting, so he'd never use them anyway. The same goes for the rest of his friends, actually."

"Alright, there's a new group of trainees coming in tomorrow. You can choose one of them." Erwin said.

"Fine."

* * *

Levi stared at the group of newly graduated soldiers standing in front of him, each held themselves with pride and determination, their arms held up in the army's well-known salute, and their gazes fixed ahead.

"They look as though they've been trained well. We'll have to see how well they fare against Titans." Levi noted absently. Erwin only nodded slightly in agreement.

The corporal walked along in front of them, giving each face a moment's examination. He stopped at an average looking brunet male that seemed about 16 years old and turned to him. "What's your name?" The recruit nearly jumped out of his skin when spoken to, though he kept his stare focused forward. "Desmond Jones, sir."

Levi only hummed slightly to show he'd heard the quiet answer before moving on. He faced a redheaded girl with very long hair who looked like she was 17 and repeated his question. "Talia Moore, sir." She answered confidently, though she turned to look at him when she had, instead of keeping her stance. Levi moved on, picking random recruits for their names. There was a very tall guy that looked about 22 with choppy black hair that introduced himself as Edward Gray, a girl of average height that looked 15 with blond hair cut in a bob who introduced herself as Clara Woods, another male that seemed 16 with short black hair that introduced himself as Jason Hunter, and a pair of male twins that looked 19 with long-ish brown hair that introduced themselves as David and Martin Burns.

Levi inwardly sighed. None of these people seemed like they could handle or appreciate what he was supposed to teach. He was about to turn and leave when he spotted one soldier he'd missed. She was next to Edward, who was the tallest person in the entire group, while she was even shorter than Levi himself, so it wasn't surprising he hadn't even seen her at all.

The corporal walked over to her, repeating his question yet again while he looked her over. She stood with a perfect salute and didn't even blink when he spoke to her. Her hair was shaved as short as Connie's in the back, while her long bangs were pushed out of her face to where they covered the right hand side of it, though they were in the process of falling back into her eye. Though what was really interesting was how her hair was white, except for a few large black streaks in her bangs, and her eyes were different colors. One was a blue color that was almost dark enough to be black, and the other was a silvery color that was just barely tinted with gold. The side of her face with the blue eye and the bangs was covered in long scars.

She answered him in an even voice, not overly confident and not skittish. "Colette Saoirse, sir." Levi paused at the fact that she was the first new recruit without an overly common name. "Do you know who I am?" He asked while staring down at her with a deadly, terrifying look.

Her bi-colored eyes snapped to focus on his face as she answered, and her expression was calm and devoid of any fear, but very intense. "You're Corporal Levi Rivaille, a leading soldier of the Survey Corps, leader of the Special Operations Squad, and hold the title as Humanity's Strongest Soldier." She said surely. She blinked, for the first time Levi had seen, and added "Sir."

Levi was impressed at her lack of fear, the look he gave her could send even stubborn little Eren running away as quickly as possible, but she just stared back at him with a slightly defiant look instead. "Why are you here?"

She answered without missing a beat, and again, not blinking. "I want to be useful instead of hiding behind walls my entire life while others die instead. I want to protect others and try to help end these monsters so humans can live without fear again. I know it's likely I'll die on my first mission, but I want to try."

He stared at her intense multicolored gaze for a few more moments while he thought carefully, and she still didn't blink. The corporal narrowed his eyes slightly before turning toward where Erwin was standing and nodding at him. The commander nodded back before walking up to stand beside Levi, and they both stared down at the incredibly short recruit.

"It's a good thing Levi doesn't scare you, because you're going to be around him a lot." Erwin informed her.

"Welcome to the Special Ops squad." Levi said. "Apprentice." He added, nearly smirking.

Colette's eyes widened, before she blinked for only the second time and fixed her expression back into her slightly defiant one. "Thank you sir, I look forward to working with you."


	2. Chapter 2

**I didn't expect this to get so many faves/follows in ONE DAY. The first chapter even sucks, like nothing interesting happens since it's literally just setting up for the story. I ain't complaining though, I love the support. Feedback is nice too though *coughreviewscough* **

**Anyway, in this chapter things pick up a little bit because of some master/apprentice bonding and Colette's little secret gets revealed (but only to us, Levi isn't allowed to know yet) **

**Also I'm mad at my email right now because I figured my stories just weren't getting read by anyone, but what actually happened was all my reviews, faves, and follows were getting sent to the spam folder! Stupid email. **

**Well, on to the story!**

* * *

Levi lead the Special Ops squad, which included Eren and Colette, through the town and towards the gates to the outside. The rest of the Survey Corps rode along behind them, along with the new trainees that had joined with Colette.

Speaking of his apprentice, Levi glanced at her. She was staring straight ahead at the path in front of her black and white horse, ignoring the stares she was attracting from passerby. The corporal realized that she's probably had to deal with this her entire life, and glared daggers at the people rudely staring.

"It won't do any good, sir. I'm just too weird for them to accept." She looked up at him, and the light caught her left eye just right so that it appeared to be glowing golden. "You've got to admit, I look pretty weird."

"He turns into a fifteen meter killing machine and they accept him fine." Levi answered, jabbing a finger in Eren's direction. Eren gave a muffled "Wha..?" as the mention of him dragged him out of his daydreaming. Colette just rolled her eyes. "But right now, he looks human. They know he exists, but they haven't seen his Titan form. There's even doubt that he can actually become one or if it's just a lie, whereas for me, they can clearly tell I'm different with just one look."

"Give it time. They'll get used to you eventually." Levi told her.

"If I survive today." She grumbled back. The corporal didn't answer.

* * *

She did. The mission had been an easy success, they hadn't been attacked on their way to the vantage point and from there they had gathered the information they'd needed, and as soon as they got back Hanji had vanished to go study it.

Colette wandered the halls of the Survey Corps base, thinking. She had survived her first mission, yes, but they hadn't even been attacked by any Titans so that was kind of obvious. Luckily the lack of fighting had prevented anyone from finding out about her little oddity.

She scratched the back of her shoulder absentmindedly, purposely avoiding the accursed extra appendages there. Those things had caused her so much trouble, she couldn't help but hate them, at least a little. In another world, another time, maybe she could look upon the feathery limbs with fondness, and be grateful for the freedom they could give her, but in this world they were nothing but a curse for her – hence why they were bound tightly against her back under her uniform. They were slightly noticeable under the white material, if one looked closely, but luckily her jacket made even that pretty much invisible. The third inhuman appendage she had, the one attached to the base of her spine, had been much harder to hide under the annoyingly tight uniform, however.

The loud banter of victoriously happy soldiers reached her ears, and she realized she'd stumbled upon the mess hall, and apparently it was time for dinner since it sounded like everyone was there. Had she really been exploring random hallways for that long? She shook her head and pushed the door open, stepping into the large room and gently closing it again behind her.

Colette stood for a moment, watching the activity in the room and mapping out where everyone was. She spotted Levi first, he was at a small table in the corner with the rest of the Special Ops squad, excluding herself and Eren. Deciding she'd bothered him enough for one day, she looked around for her fellow trainees.

While she didn't really consider anyone her friends, she had grown fond of the recruits she'd trained alongside for three years. She finally found them at one of the larger tables in the middle of the room, they were all sitting with Eren and the crew he'd graduated with, including the two friends of his that she'd heard so much about, Armin and Mikasa. She moved over to them, and took a seat between the Burns twins. Martin was distracted by an argument between Jean and Edward, but David turned to her with a welcoming smile. "Hey Def."

"Dave." She tilted her head at him in greeting before turning to the rest of the table. Armin caught her attention immediately from across the table, his hand held out in greeting as well. "Oh, well hi." Colette said, shaking the offered hand.

"I'm Armin." He said in a happy tone.

Colette paused for a moment, confused by his kindness. Didn't he find her weird? "... Colette." She answered eventually, blinking.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but why did David call you Def?" Armin asked.

"It's my nickname, actually. I prefer it over Colette, honestly, so anyone here is free to call me by it." She answered casually.

"Oh, that's cool! No one else here really has nicknames, we never really thought about it." The blond told her.

"Well, it's what my parents always called me, so I just got used to it instead of my real name." Colette explained.

"Huh. I wonder why they didn't just name you that instead if it was what they were going to call you all the time?" Armin stared at the table in thought. Colette just shrugged, she didn't really want to tell him that story.

The table fell silent, and everyone was looking in her direction. Colette tensed. Had she done something wrong? She was starting to panic until she looked back at Armin and saw him staring past her. Turning, she saw Levi had come over while she wasn't looking, and was standing behind her expectantly.

"Sir?" She tilted her head slightly, though the mask she'd shown him earlier was back on her face, looking respectful but slightly defiant.

"You should head off to bed. We're getting up much earlier than everyone else tomorrow to start your training." Levi informed her with his usual cold stare. "Also, you won't be in the barracks with everyone else. I'll show you to your room now, if you like."

Colette was surprised he even gave her the option of declining, instead of just ordering her to follow him. Though she wasn't in the mood to get yelled at, so she just nodded and stood up with a faint "Yes, sir." Levi turned and walked toward the door without a word, so Colette glanced at the table and everyones' stares before giving them a shrug and following her superior.

She caught up to him just outside of the mess hall, the short corporal having paused to wait for her. He continued walking with an irritated look, and she fell into step behind him in silence, not wanting to annoy him further. It was a few moments before either said anything, and Levi himself was the one to break the silence. "You seemed to get along alright with the older recruits."

"They could hardly be called 'older', sir. My fellow graduates are all older than Eren, minus one of the other girls. They merely finished their training before us." Colette said with an indifferent tone.

"Either way, they were here first, and therefore are the older group." Levi shot back.

Colette was silent for awhile after that. Her mind wandered over multiple different things as they walked, her gaze blindly fixed on the wall to her right. "Why did you pick me, sir?"

She didn't even realize she'd spoken aloud until Levi came to a dead stop and she bumped into him. He turned to face her, and stared straight at her while he prompted her to ask again, unsure if he'd heard her right. "What was that?"

"Nothing, sir.." She looked down at the floor. She was yelling at herself in her head to keep her mouth shut next time. Though she said nothing of these thoughts, Levi could practically see the torn expression on her face and knew she hadn't actually meant to speak her question.

"I didn't want an apprentice at all." Levi started. Colette turned her gaze to him, though she didn't lift her head so all he could see was her silver eye shining gold again, the rest of her face and her dark eye were in shadow. "And I didn't plan to choose one. I was simply humoring Erwin when I agreed to look at the new graduates who had decided to join the Survey Corps. After meeting each one, I knew none of them were right, that they probably wouldn't last one day of personal training with me. They just didn't have the right mindset, or determination, and so on. But right when I was about to leave, I saw you, and you were different, I could tell. So I decided to give you a chance."

"Yeah, I don't look anything like anyone else you've ever seen, huh..." Colette blinked for the first time during the conversation and looked down again.

"I wasn't talking about your looks." Levi said quietly.

Her head snapped back up again and she stared at him with wide eyes, surprise etched across her face. The gold was gone from her silver eye again, and the other had darkened to where it looked almost completely black. Before she knew it, her body had acted on its own again and she'd lunged forward to hug the corporal.

He stiffened in surprise, though didn't push her away like he normally would. Colette felt him start to move his arms up to hug her back, but she flinched away and stepped back to where she'd been standing before, her arms crossed and bangs covering her face. "Sorry sir. Can we continue on our way now?" She mumbled. Levi nodded, and turned to keep walking down the hallway, while Colette trailed behind him. They kept walking for quite some time in silence, Levi was too busy thinking to say anything, and Colette was yelling at herself in her head again.

After awhile, Levi stopped again, this time in front of an old wooden door. He pushed it open and stepped into the darkness inside, and Colette could hear him walk further into the room before picking something up off of a table, and it turned out to be a candle as Levi lit it and set it back down, filling the room with the orange light. She stepped into the room after him, and looked around. It was simple, but definitely one of the upper class master bedrooms, made obvious by the intricate wooden molding on the walls and the ornate furniture.

"Get to bed, we're getting up in only a few hours. My room is the next one over if you need me." Levi said, and when she turned to face him, she noticed he'd moved to stand in the doorway while she was distracted examining her room.

"Sir?" She asked.

"Yes, what is it?" The corporal grumbled back.

"Thank you." She said. "For what you said earlier, and everything else too, I suppose."

"Which reminds me. Why did you freak out like you did when you hugged me?" Levi asked, looking genuinely curious.

"I..." Colette started, about to think up a lie before deciding to tell him the truth instead. "I just didn't want you to touch my back, sir."

"And why is that?"

"I can't tell you, sir." She wanted to tell him, she really did, but she knew it would cause nothing but trouble if anyone knew about it.

He just nodded, accepting her answer, and stepped out of the room. Just before he closed the door, he looked back and said "You'll have to learn to trust me for this to work." and with that, the door shut with a faint click and she heard his footsteps retreating to the neighboring room.

Colette let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. After a moment, she decided she was alone for good and moved to change clothes. She removed her jacket and boots before fighting to rid herself of the 3D Maneuver Gear straps. Once those were finally gone, she quickly discarded the white uniform as well, and then glanced at the mirror on the far side of the room. She stepped closer to it and studied the multitude of white bandages wrapped around her entire body except for her arms.

She sighed, and hoped no one ever saw this, because she wouldn't be able to explain why she was covered in bandages when she wasn't injured. Colette shook her head to clear it, and started to undo the bandages.

Minutes later, the last strip of white cotton fell to the floor, and she gave a faint sigh of relief as those three accursed appendages were freed. As much as she hated them, they were still part of her and binding them was painful. She looked back at the mirror, staring at the feathered wings sprouting from her shoulder blades and folded down against her back, and the long, thin tail protruding from the end of her spine that she now had coiled around her feet on the floor, the feathered tip of it dusting against the floorboards softly.

The tail itself was black, with a few white markings on it, and the feathers at the tip of it were arranged like a paper fan, and could fold like one, too. On one side, the feathers were white, but on the other, they were black. Similarly, her right wing was white, and her left wing was black.

Colette made sure to stretch her wings well, since this was the only chance she'd get to for awhile. She was able to stretch them out completely and even give a few experimental flaps despite the room being relatively small, since her wingspan was actually very tiny. Spread fully, her wings were almost as wide as she was tall, which wasn't much since she was the shortest person in the entire army. Her wings had never had a chance to grow fully, though, since they'd been tied tightly against her back for her entire life.

With an annoyed sound, she reached for the bandages again. Though sleeping without them was more comfortable, she didn't want to risk Levi finding out about her wings and tail. Once the offending feathery appendages were semi-comfortably bound again, she changed into her nightclothes and blew out the candle.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wake up, it's time to leave."

Colette snapped awake at the quiet words, and she was on edge for a moment until she realized it was just Levi. She looked up to see that he was actually standing a few steps away from her bed, instead of right next to it like her fellow trainees would whenever they had to wake her up. She stood, stretching for a moment, before turning and folding the blankets on her bed back into place neatly, and then moving to get her uniform.

"Why did you make your bed?" Levi seemed confused. Colette peeked out at him from behind a screen in the corner of the room, where she'd moved to change clothes, and answered in just as confused a voice. "It, uh... Was bothering me? I always do that, otherwise it'll annoy me all day. Everything is so much easier when things are organized, clean, or put away properly."

Levi only hummed in agreement as she moved to find her boots and jacket, and once she'd pulled them on and adjusted them comfortably, the corporal grabbed her cloak from its hook on the wall and threw it at her. "You get ready quickly." He commented. She'd instantly snatched it out of the air mid-flight, and it was already fastened around her shoulders.

"I always had to when I was young." She told him, pushing the door open.

Her superior hummed in response again, before changing the subject. "I can only hope Jaeger is already dressed, otherwise we'll be waiting another hour just for him to wake up."

"Wait, why are we bringing him?" Colette asked, confused.

"Hanji wants him today for experiments. She'll meet us halfway to the training grounds to take him back to the city, and then we'll be rid of the brat for the rest of the day." He explained as they headed for the dungeon.

"Oh. That makes sense." Colette said, feeling a bit dumb for not realizing that herself.

She followed Levi through the castle, going down multiple flights of stairs and through winding corridors that seemed to go on forever. She realized yet again how easy it would be to get lost in this enormous castle, and wondered how she or her fellow trainees hadn't already done so.

They finally made it to the last staircase, the one leading to the basement, and started to make their way down it after Levi had grabbed the torch just within the door. They walked past the rows of currently-empty cells to the one at the end, where Eren was housed. Levi held the torch high to illuminate the inside of the cell, and Colette facepalmed when she spotted the tangle of sheets and limbs that was half on the bed and half on the floor, snoring loudly.

Levi sighed, and gave her the torch before unlocking the cell and walking in, ready to give Eren a very rude awakening.

* * *

Colette glanced over at Eren and chuckled quietly at his half-asleep and half kicked puppy expression, which weren't far off from the truth. He was practically falling off of his dark brown horse as the large animal walked along, following obediently behind Levi's white horse, since his rider was too asleep to actually tell the animal where to go.

She reached down and scratched her own horse, the same black and white one as before, between his ears while she watched the Titan shifter lean further and further to the side. He lost his balance and started to fall before snapping completely awake again and scrambling back up to sit properly in the saddle. She kept snickering while watching this, and Levi glanced back momentarily to see what she was finding so amusing, only to turn back to the road ahead of them with a funny noise that Colette decided was him trying to stifle a laugh.

Up ahead, there was a fork in the road that Colette could see another rider waiting at, their horse standing to the side eating grass while the rider crouched near it, staring at the ground intently. Between the weird way they were acting and the green cloak on their shoulders, she knew immediately that it was Hanji.

The supporting leader and Titan researcher of the Survey Corps glanced up, and her face immediately split into a huge smile at the sight of them. She stood and walked to meet them, stopping beside Levi and shoving a strange plant with purple flowers in his face while excitedly saying, "Levi! Levi! Look what I found!" The Corporal reached up to push it away irritatedly, but Colette's arm shot forward to grab his wrist. Looking back at her, Levi raised an eyebrow.

"You shouldn't touch that plant, sir," She explained, letting go.

"Ah, yes. Thank you for that. I forgot that he isn't wearing gloves." Hanji said, scratching the back of her head with her free hand, giving them both a sheepish look.

"Can I see that plant?" Colette asked, fishing a white piece of cloth out of her jacket and covering her hand with it. Hanji nodded and set the flowering plant on her covered hand while Levi watched them with his eyebrow still raised. "This is... Wolf's Bane, isn't it? This stuff is crazy poisonous."

"Hey! You recognize it too! And here I thought no one else would know what it was, since it's so rare here." Hanji said.

"I know a bit about poisonous plants." Colette admitted. "Are you planning on trying it on Titans?"

"I am. Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll work on them!" Her eyes shone behind her glasses as she said this excitedly.

"Well, you could always test it on sleepy head back there." Colette chuckled, glancing back at the Titan shifter that had long since fallen asleep on his horse. Hanji's eyes snapped to him with a weird look. "NO." Colette and Levi both snapped in unison, and Hanji raised her hands in mock defeat.

"Wasn't going to." She said.

"You know that one plant isn't going to be enough to poison even the smallest Titans, right?" Levi asked, changing the subject. "If it even works on them anyway."

"That's why I have these!" Hanji said, picking up a pile of them from the ground where she'd been when they showed up. "This should be enough to test it with."

"Here." Colette took the bundle of Wolf's Bane and gently tied them up in the cloth together before handing it back to the researcher. "Now you don't have to worry about contaminating whatever you were going to put those in."

"Oooh! Thanks!" Hanji said, putting the covered bundle in one of the saddlebags on her horse. She turned back to say something else, but Levi spoke up first, annoyed.

"Can we just hurry up and get going? We've all got work to do."

"Oh yeah. Okay, see you later!" Hanji said, grabbing the reins of Eren's horse before climbing onto her own and riding off, not even bothering to wake him up. Colette snickered again when she realized he'd probably fall off his horse somewhere along the way and Hanji might not even notice.

She looked up and found Levi watching her with his usual blank look, and immediately steeled her expression back to the defiant one. The Corporal looked back to the retreating figure of the researcher and grumbled, "At least they finally left."

They turned down the third path and continued on their way, heading for a large, clear field used for training. The horses walked along with silence between the riders, before Colette spoke up suddenly. "Care for a race, sir?"

Levi looked over at her with a raised eyebrow, again. Her mismatched eyes were shining with an unspoken challenge. He kept his piercing stare on her for a few more moments, and then suddenly spurred his horse into a gallop and sped off, leaving her in the dust. "Hey! Unfair, man!" Colette shouted before chasing after him.

She caught up a minute later, and the horses ran side by side since Colette's horse was smaller and couldn't quite speed up enough to pass Levi. They could see the field already, since it hadn't been far in the first place, and Levi gave her a very faint smirk before speeding up slightly and pulling ahead. Colette snorted in annoyance, since she couldn't go any faster, and scanned the nearby land for anything she could use to her advantage.

On one side of the path was a small thicket of trees, and one of the larger trees on the edge had fallen across the path, blocking the way. Colette glanced momentarily at Levi's horse, and decided he didn't look like a jumper, so Levi would probably go around the fallen tree. She didn't know if hers was or not, but she was about to find out.

Just as she'd predicted, Levi slowed slightly and turned to go around the tree, but Colette kept up the same pace and headed directly for it, bracing herself for either the jump or the impact, whichever happened.

* * *

Levi turned to look at Colette when he heard her gallop right past him, and watched as her black and white horse jumped at the last second, clearing the large tree in one easy bound. For a split second while she was in the air, the sun was behind her and at just the right angle so the light bled through her white shirt, making her body look like a shadow, and... Were those feathers?

They came to a stop on the other side of the tree, both horses and riders were out of breath from the race and were panting slightly, but Levi turned to Colette anyway. "Not bad. You're lucky your guess at him being a jumper was right." He commented, gesturing toward the black and white horse. He didn't mention it to her, but Levi was deep in thought, trying to figure out why there were feathers on her back. Was that why she didn't like it touched? And if they were such a problem, why didn't she just leave them in a box or wear them as a necklace instead of putting them under her uniform on her back? Why did she even keep feathers with her, anyway?

"Ready to get started?" Levi asked after a few moments, both of them having caught their breath by then.

"Sure." Colette answered, before quickly changing her expression back to that same defiant mask and saying "I mean, yes sir."

Levi climbed down and tethered his horse to a low tree branch and retrieved the practice swords from where they were tied to the back of his saddle, and then moved further out into the field. Colette tied her horse as well before following him. Once they reached a spot the Corporal decided he liked, he tossed one of the wooden swords at Colette and she snatched it out of the air with ease, just like she had with her cloak that morning.

"Alright, let's see how you are with combat against other humans." Levi said. "We can get into Titan fighting and 3D Maneuver Gear techniques later. For now, we'll start with the basics. Try to defeat me."

She stared back at him for a moment, shifting her grip on the sword and looking for an opening. The moment stretched out, seconds turning into minutes, and she still hadn't moved to attack. She was doing that not-blinking thing again, too. Levi decided it was probably something she did when focused, since she seemed to be blinking normally during the conversation with Hanji earlier. An odd habit to have, though. He wondered where she picked it up. His thoughts on the matter would've continued if he hadn't suddenly found himself on the ground, his short apprentice standing over him with her sword pointed at his face.

"You got distracted, sir."

Levi gave a slight "Tch." as he stood up again, dusting off his cloak. "So that's your technique, eh?" Despite his slightly irritated expression, he was actually impressed with it. She'd been able to hold completely still and stare him down long enough for him to get pulled back into his own thoughts and stop focusing on the matter at hand, and then she'd been able to tell when that happened, even though his expression hadn't changed while they'd been standing there.

"I learned it's easy to defeat people that way. One of three things usually happens; they get unnerved by my weird eyes which makes an opening for me to attack, they get bored with the seemingly never ending stare off which also makes an opening, or, like just now, they start to think about something else and get distracted." Colette explained. "It's useless unless they're expecting me to attack first, however."

"Kind of a dirty trick, but smart." Levi admitted. "Come on, now try defending yourself."

Colette moved back to the place she'd been standing before, and Levi waited a few moments before sprinting forward and aiming a strike at her. She blocked it easily, and the next few he tried as well. She didn't seem to expect him to trip her, though, and this time it was her that was suddenly on the ground and staring up at a sword pointed at her face. Levi stepped back with a "Try again."

He attacked again, and this time she dodged the initial strike, sidestepping him and trying to get a strike in, but he spun and blocked, twisting his sword around just right so that hers twisted with it and was tossed from her hand. "Again."

She retrieved her sword, and they began again. This time Levi ran at her, and feinted to one side but actually struck to the opposite side. This hit actually landed on her, but other than a slight flinch of surprise, she didn't react. She quickly blocked the next attack, and then he aimed for her head, knowing she'd dodge, and when she did he took advantage of her unbalanced stance and swept her leg from under her, making her fall to the ground again.

This went on for the rest of the day, they'd fight until one of them fell or lost their sword and then they'd start another round, trying harder each time to take advantage of the other's weaknesses and win the round. Levi won for the majority of the time, but Colette did manage to defeat him a few times. Neither of them were without bruises though, and they both had grass in their hair from falling on the ground. Levi figured out during the various duels that Colette was fast, and when she managed to strike, she struck hard. She wasn't great at defending though, they'd have to work on that, he mused. One thing he'd noticed was that she didn't seem to react very strongly to her back being struck. He'd accidentally hit there a few times, and she mainly just visibly jumped and tensed, but didn't run as far as possible like when anyone almost touched it with their hand. This confused him because he'd figured it was just really sensitive for one reason or another, whether it be from a previous injury or otherwise, and just hurt to be touched but if that was the case, then she'd react more strongly to an offensive hit than a friendly pat. He was still trying to incorporate the feathers he'd seen into the whole picture, as well. He couldn't figure it out, at least right now.

"We should head back to headquarters." Levi commented, looking at the patch of orange and purple streaked sky that was visible through the canopy of leaves they rested under, leaning against one of the trees. "Eren and Hanji have probably already gotten back."

"Aww.. It's so lovely out here." Colette mumbled, before quickly covering up her mistake. "I mean, um, yes sir."

"You can relax, you know. I'm not going to bite just because you talked like a regular person instead of a soldier." He told her.

"Oh, okay. Sir."

"We can stay out for awhile longer, if you'd prefer that." He looked over at her.

"You're... Giving me the choice?" Due to the sun having already disappeared behind the wall, they were in complete shadow, but Levi could clearly see her silver eye staring at him in surprise, still reflecting enough light to faintly glow gold.

"I don't see a reason not to. I trust my apprentice."

She gave a faint squeak of surprise, before she looked at the ground guiltily. "But I still won't trust you enough to tell you my secret."

"If you don't want to, it's your choice." Levi was already halfway to piecing the puzzle together himself anyway. "But, I do have to ask. Does anyone know?"

She watched him for a moment, as if deciding whether or not he'd try and make those people tell him instead, but seemed to decide to trust him. "My parents, obviously, and the twins. They're the only people that know."

Levi raised an eyebrow. "Why the twins?"

"They're nosey. They found out on their own. And then I may or may not have held them over the edge of the barracks roof until they agreed to not tell." She explained, smiling slightly as she remembered.

Levi chuckled quietly, that sounded exactly like what he wouldn't done if he was her.

"We probably should head back now though, sir. They might start to wonder if we killed each other." Colette said.

"Alright, come on then." He stood, retrieving the practice swords and their cloaks from where they'd been abandoned on the field. He threw Colette's cloak at her again, and she caught it just as easily as before. "You should teach Jaeger how to do that – he's constantly dropping things." He told her while putting the swords back onto his saddle and pulling his own cloak back around his shoulders.

"Hrmph. He wouldn't even catch a Titan if it stepped on him." She stated. Levi tried to stifle his laugh again, and it came out as the same weird noise as before, which sounded like a cross between a chuckle and a snort. He really needed to stop doing that.

"Well, let's go." He said, climbing onto his horse before nudging the animal into a brisk walk. Colette did the same and followed him, back towards the Survey Corps castle.

* * *

They made it back a little while later, and after removing the tack from their horses they headed to the mess hall. It was dinner time yet again, and the banter of content soldiers echoed all the way down the hall. "We really need to install some soundproofing in the walls of that room." Levi grumbled.

Colette nodded in agreement while he pushed the door open. They stepped inside, and a few faces turned to look at them. Colette seemed to shrink under their stares, which was quite a feat since she was already incredibly short. Levi glared daggers at them before walking to the Special Ops squad table where the rest of his squad was already sitting, dragging Colette along with him. She glanced at him uneasily as she settled into the spot right next to him, and Levi leaned over to say "You're perfectly welcome here. You are part of this squad, after all." She nodded and relaxed a little.

Levi was glad when he noticed Colette talking with Petra a few minutes later, at least she wasn't too terrified to speak to any of them. She still looked like a scared kitten whenever any of the other members said anything to her, though.

They finished their meal a little while later, and Colette stood to leave. Levi got up to go with her, deciding now was as good a time as any to go to bed himself, and she'd probably get lost on the way if she tried to go alone. They were walking to the door when a few of her fellow trainees came over, with a call of "Hey Def!" Colette stopped to talk to them a moment, and Levi waited off to the side, disinterested in the conversation.

She was talking to the twins and Talia, the red headed girl, and Levi was just barely aware that it was about today. She was telling them what she'd learned and improved on, and David seemed quite happy about that. It looked like he'd been her versus partner back in the training camp, and he probably knew just how bad she was at defense.

For some reason, the conversation gained his full attention when Jean walked up. He was speaking to Colette, apparently having heard about her improvements, and said "Well good job, kid."

"Um..." Colette blinked. "I'm older than you."

"Whatever. Good job anyway." He said, and gave her a pat on the back.

Levi was instantly stood back up straight from his spot leaning on the wall, watching Colette for her reaction. She gave a strained "Thanks." and stuttered an excuse to leave before bolting from the room. Before following, Levi glanced back at the group. Jean and Talia looked confused, but, as he'd expected, the twins exchanged a knowing look.

Outside of the mess hall, Levi ran to catch up with his apprentice. She was just around the corner at the end, and he fell into step beside her. "Are you okay?"

"What? No. I mean yes. I mean, I'm fine!Why wouldn't I be?" She was still tripping over her words.

"I can tell when you're lying, Colette."

"You.. Used my name?" She looked dumbfounded. Well, at least it made her forget about Jean.

"Yeah." He said simply, and continued on towards their rooms. Colette was quiet the entire way there, and when they finally stood in front of their doors, Levi turned to her. "I'm sure Jean didn't notice."

"Huh?" She looked up at him.

"Whatever you're hiding, I'm sure he didn't notice it with just that little second-long touch. Especially through your jacket."

"That's true." She turned to go into her room. "Thanks again... Levi." And with that she disappeared inside. Levi shook his head slightly, and went into his own room.

* * *

Colette gave a pent up sigh as soon as she was alone. The day with Levi had been nice, he was surprisingly respectful of her aversion to having her back touched. He'd tried not to make it obvious, but she had noticed him purposely avoiding touching her in general, except for when he ruffled her hair after an especially impressive fight earlier.

She quickly removed her uniform again, and looked down at the bandages, incredibly annoyed.

They were loose.

Apparently she hadn't tied them tight enough last night, because during the race on the horses they'd loosened enough for a few feathers to work their way out from between them. Not only had it been itchy all day, she'd been on edge that Levi would see them poking up against the white material. He hadn't seemed to notice though, luckily.

She did the same thing she had last night, removing the bandages and stretching her wings and tail. Her wings ached a lot now, since she'd been thrown to the ground and landed on them so many times. She dreaded what they'd feel like tomorrow. Shaking her head, she folded them and put the bandages back on, making sure to get them tight this time, before changing and going to bed.

* * *

**Woo! Long chapter! I was originally going to cut this off during the race scene and post the first half, but I decided to make the whole day one full chapter.**

**I do want to say a few things, though. For one, Wolf's Bane was the only plant I could think of that is deadly poisonous to humans and I THINK it grows in Germany. I THINK. This will resurface a few chapters down the line, muahahaha.**

**Two, I have this headcanon idea that Eren is NOT a morning person, and also that he's clumsy. That's why he's kinda OOC in this chapter.**

**Three, I can't remember where the rest of the Survey Corps actually live, so I'm making the castle their base, hence why everyone in the Survey Corps is there and not just the Special Ops squad. I also have Eren stuck in the dungeon because I can't remember if he only stayed there the once, or if he stayed in the dungeon a long time. But I read a bunch of other fanfics where he lived there so he's staying there.**

**Levi may seem a bit out of character during the scene under the tree and at the end, but that's because he's starting to like his little apprentice that is a lot like him. He also called Eren by his first name on purpose in that one line, that wasn't a typo. I've decided that, while relaxed and around people he trusts, he slips out of the military act and calls everyone by their first names. I also couldn't remember what color horse he rides so I gave him a white one (I'm pretty sure his was brown, though...)**

**It's also five AM and I probably missed a ton of stuff while proofreading this but I wanted to get it posted so yeah.**

**(Side note: Colette is human ;) I'll have a scene in a few chapters where Hanji explains why or how she is like she is, and yes, Hanji finds out about the secret too)**


	4. Chapter 4

Colette was awoken by a loud knocking on her door and grumbled, rolling back over in bed and hoping they'd go away. She curled into a ball under the covers and tried to ignore the knocking, which only got louder as the cause of it became more annoyed.

"Get out of bed right now, apprentice, or I'll have to force you to." She heard Levi growl through the door.

"Noooooooooo..." she groaned in response.

"You're not that tired." He said, opening the door and heading into the room. "Besides, I've already allowed you to sleep an hour late."

She poked her head out of the covers, squinting at him. "Ehh?"

"Now get up and come on, there's work to be done." Levi gave her that 'do as I say or I will make you die a very painful death' look.

"What are we doing today?" Colette asked as she forced herself to roll out of bed.

"Cleaning. This place is filthy!"

It was only then that she noticed Levi's clothes. He wasn't wearing his cloak or jacket, and the white cloth that was normally tucked into his collar was instead tied into a mask, though he'd pulled it down off of his face to speak to her. Oh, this was cleaning day. Or, more commonly known as clean-everything-before-Levi-kills-you day.

"Where do you want me to work?" Colette asked, pulling her uniform out of the wardrobe and moving behind the screen to change.

Levi held up a long piece of paper and read it a moment, deciding which task to give her. "You can start by heading to the kitchen and mess hall and helping Jaeger, Kirstein, Blouse, and Jones. Make sure Blouse doesn't clear out the kitchen, and keep Jaeger and Kirstein from killing each other. After you're all done there, feel free to drag any of them along with you down to the stables to wash the horses. I assume you can handle all of that?"

Having finished changing her clothes during his long winded instructions, Colette was now trying to find a cloth she could use as a mask like Levi's, but looked over at him to answer. "So, don't let potato girl eat all the potatoes, don't let the idiots kill each other, and give the fuzzy things a bath." Levi rolled his eyes at her wording, but nodded. "Can I dump a bucket of soapy water on Eren's head?"

"Go right ahead." Levi smirked, amused by the prankster attitude she had today.

"Yesssss!" She said happily, tying the black cloth she'd finally found around her face. "Titan boy is in for a surprise bath, muahahaha..."

"Alright, enough evil plotting and back to being serious." Levi said, and she nodded. "You're in charge. I can't be everywhere at once and there are plenty of other idiot soldiers for me to keep in line, so I'm going to let you keep your idiot friends in line. I'll come check how you're doing later in the stables. This should only take a few hours since I managed to force the entire branch into helping for once, so we might have time to do some training at some point as well."

"Sounds like we should be able to get a lot done today." She said as they walked out of her room and toward the mess hall.

"Yes, if everything goes smoothly." Levi told her. "Also, how are you feeling today? Yesterday was pretty exhausting."

"Everything is sore and I'd much rather have stayed in bed." She stated bluntly.

"Then you should have dodged faster." He replied, equally as blunt.

She would've given a smart remark, but they were nearing the mess hall and could already hear the sounds of things being thrown back and forth across the room, and whoever inside was laughing and yelling.

The two exchanged a look before sprinting in the direction of the door to the room. On the way, Colette asked "Are they doing what I think they're doing?"

"I swear if they are, then I will give them cleaning duty for weeks." Levi growled.

They stopped at the door and stepped inside, examining the room that was a much bigger mess than it had been when they'd left it last night. Two of the large tables had been pushed on their sides and moved to each side of the room, behind one they could see Jean throwing a tomato toward the other table, which seemed vacant until Eren and Desmond stood up to throw lettuce at Jean.

"No fair! There's two of you and only one of us since Sasha won't join in!" Jean yelled toward the other table.

"Too bad!" Eren laughed, ducking out of sight again while Desmond continued the lettuce onslaught.

Colette and Levi were silent for a few moments. "Yep, they are." They finally said at the same time, and Levi turned toward Colette and grumbled "Cleaning duty for weeks."

Levi looked back toward the room and cleared his throat, loudly enough for the soldiers in the room to look up and notice the duo, which, to them, was a terrifying sight. Both of them had annoyed looks on their faces and unblinking, cold stares that said "You're so dead."

"The corporal spoke up, his voice now matching his cold stare. "Care to explain what's going on here?"

"Uh.. Um..." Was all Eren could manage. Jean and Desmond stayed silent. Sasha chose that moment to peek over the edge of the table from her spot beside Jean, and upon seeing the deadly glares of the corporal and his apprentice, slowly sunk back down out of sight again. "Alright, then you all have cleaning duty for the next three weeks, skip it even once and you'll get another week. Try to make anyone else help and you'll get another week. Complain and you'll get another week. Am I understood?"

The three nodded, though Sasha popped back into sight and started to say "But I-"

Levi cut her off. "You're excluded. I'm pretty sure everyone in the entire army knows that you wouldn't willingly be in a food fight."

Sasha visibly let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you, sir."

He only nodded before speaking up again. "Colette will be completely in charge of you today. I don't care if you outrank her or not, do as she says and don't complain. You'll be in even more trouble if you disobey. Got it?" They nodded quickly and Levi left, leaving Colette alone to take charge.

"Alright, we should get to work cleaning up this mess." Colette said, walking to the storage closet to get some brooms and mops, which she immediately threw at Desmond and Jean upon finding them. "You two, clean the floor in here. Eren, you can get the tables, and Sasha, you can help me with the kitchen."

Eren nodded, and retrieved one of the washcloths that had been forgotten in a pile, presumably when the food fight had started. "Oh, and if you two get in a fight, I will not hesitate to tie you both to a chandelier upside down and leave you there for a few hours." She added, and they all knew she meant Eren and Jean. "And just because I'm not in this room, don't think I won't notice an argument."

With that, she grabbed another mop and a few of the washcloths before pushing Sasha into the kitchen, leaving the door open behind them so she could keep an eye on the others. There was another storage closet in this room, which Sasha dug a bucket out of and set to work mopping the floor while Colette turned instead to the counters and cabinets. She scrubbed at the smudged surfaces with a perfectionist's attitude, being just as determined to get the place clean as Levi was. It was a few minutes before Sasha spoke up quietly from somewhere behind her.

"You know, I was really surprised that corporal Levi let me off the hook like that."

"He knew you weren't at fault, and he isn't one to punish those that don't deserve it. Unless he has to, of course." Colette added, thinking of what she'd been told had happened at Eren's trial.

"What's it like, being his apprentice?" Sasha asked, curious.

"Well, I've only been here a few days, but so far it's been pretty interesting. Although, to me, he seems to be the least insane person in this entire branch of the military, so it's pretty peaceful to be around him." Colette told her truthfully.

"But he's scary!" She squeaked in reply.

"True, but only if you're his enemy or you annoyed him." They could both hear insults being thrown back and forth in the other room by now, and Colette stuck her head outside the door to glare at Eren and Jean. "And WHAT did I tell you earlier?" They immediately started ignoring each other and went back to their assigned tasks.

"Heh, I think you're starting to take after the corporal." Sasha commented, usually only their superiors and Mikasa could get those two to shut up once they'd gotten in an argument.

"Hm, maybe." Colette replied, turning her attention back to a particularly annoying smudge on the counter. Sasha did the same, having nothing else to say.

* * *

Levi walked into one of the many unused rooms in the castle to check if it needed any work, and was surprised to find Petra there, stationed by the window with a large canvas in front of her. She rested her paintbrush lightly against her lip while she stared at her painting, deep in thought, and thus hadn't noticed Levi's presence.

"What are you doing in here?" Levi asked.

Petra jumped, and looked over at him in surprise, before relaxing when she saw who it was. She turned back to her painting and answered with "I finished cleaning the attic with Gunther, so he left to check on the trainees at the barracks and I came here to work on this. I did clean this room first, though."

"Hmm." was all Levi gave in response, before adding, "What are you painting?" and stepping closer to look.

"It's a bird, but I can't get his wings right. Maybe if I try ruffled feathers..." She mused, leaning forward and adding some haphazard, stray feathers with a few strokes of her brush. Levi watched intently, trying to figure out what the little bird and its messy feathers were reminding him of. His eyes widened ever so slightly when he realized it looked exactly like the feathers he'd seen on Colette's back during their race.

With a mumbled "No, that's not quite right either." Petra erased the stray feathers by painting the background over them, but Levi had already figured out the mystery of his apprentice thanks to the painted bird's short-lived messy feathers.

"You know, I wish I had a model or reference of some sort.." Petra told him absently. "That would make this a lot easier. Too bad there aren't many birds around here that want to sit and be my reference."

"There might be one." Levi mumbled as he left the room. Petra only blinked at the door multiple times confusedly, before giving a quiet "... What?"

* * *

"Well, looks like we're done in here." Colette said finally, tossing her washcloth into one of the mop buckets and stretching her cramped muscles. "Jean, Sasha, you're free to go. You two, however, have more work to do." She informed Eren and Desmond. The two groaned in response while Jean laughed on his way out the door. Sasha stayed, unsure whether to go or not.

"It's okay Sasha, really. We can handle the rest, and don't worry, Levi isn't going to yell at you for leaving." Colette smirked slightly, knowing she was afraid of the corporal. "Go find Connie and help with whatever Levi tasked him with."

Sasha nodded, and left the room as well. Colette motioned for the other two to follow her while she followed the redhead, heading down the hall towards the entrance of the castle. On the way there, they passed many of the other soldiers and trainees, each one stuck doing a different task all throughout the various rooms they went by.

"Eren, we're going to need more buckets of water. Can you get that?" Colette asked once they made it outside. "And Desmond, we also need soap and brushes, so you get that."

The two boys nodded and ran off in separate directions. Colette shook her head and walked to the nearest stall of the stable, and peeked over the edge of its heavy wooden gate, ignoring how it was almost as tall as she was, and looked at the horse housed in it. The enormous creature looked down at her with a confused look, and she stared back with a similar look while she tried to figure out whose horse it was. She shrugged and grabbed its halter from where it hung on the outside of the stall, before unlocking the gate and stepping inside to slip it over the animal's face. She grumbled slightly at how much taller the horse was than her.

Leading the horse outside, she was met by Eren and Desmond again. They had the supplies she'd told them to get, and were now looking at her with confused looks on their faces. "Why did you get out commander Erwin's horse?" Eren asked.

Colette's eye twitched. No wonder the stupid thing was so tall. "Because we're in charge of bathing the horses, all of them." This was immediately met by exasperated groans from her two companions. "Oh, shut up you two and help me move this guy somewhere that won't get muddy. I'm pretty sure if he could talk, he'd be making short jokes right now and I'm not sure how long he's going to listen to me."

She rolled her eyes as Eren took the lead rope from her while trying to suppress a laugh, and she glared at Desmond, daring him to laugh at her short stature too. He did. She punched him.

Once they'd moved over to an area behind the stables that was covered in cobblestone pavement with fence posts sticking out of the ground in a row, Eren tied the horse to one of the posts. Colette turned to him and stated "Levi made them make this area just for washing the horses, didn't he." The Titan shifter nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like him."

Turning back to the task at hand, she took one of the buckets of water and poured it over the back of the horse. He snorted at her in irritation, but she ignored him, instead taking the soap and a brush and began to scrub the dirt out of his short fur. "Well, what are you waiting for? Grab a couple of the other horses and get to work!" She snapped at the boys, who immediately went back around to the front of the stables to do as she told them. They came back a moment later, leading what she recognized to be their own horses, which she rolled her eyes at. They were going to make her deal with all of the ones with attitude, weren't they?

Surprisingly, Colette did manage to make Erwin's grumpy horse behave long enough for her to bathe him, and was able to move on to the rest fairly quickly. About two hours later, she'd finished with the horses of the entire Special Ops squad as well as Hanji's and a few of the more aggressive ones assigned to random soldiers, and was leading the white horse Levi had ridden on the previous day in their race to the cobblestone area when Eren stopped her.

"I'm not so sure you want to handle that one." He said.

"Why is that?" Colette questioned curiously.

"He is corporal Levi's, but isn't used for expeditions outside the walls. Apparently, he used to be, but after an attack in which he got injured he was removed from the rest of the warhorses. From what I've been told, the corporal was pretty attached to him so he kept him around for any trips inside the walls, but he's still really fragile so no one is allowed to go near him except the corporal." Eren explained.

"Huh, Levi actually cares about an animal eh? That's a new one." Colette raised an eyebrow, the corporal didn't even seem to like people, much less the bratty horses. "I'm sure he won't mind me giving him a bath."

"Well, alright.." Eren had an unsure look on his face, but didn't question her further.

Colette went on as normal, dumping yet another refilled bucket of soapy water over the white horse's back and setting to work scrubbing out any dirt from his fur. "Well, an old injury explains why you're not a jumper." She mused. "Still, I wonder why Levi kept you around."

Once the horse was clean, Colette looked around and found that Desmond was already done with his last horse, leaning against a wall waiting for the other two to catch up, and Eren wasn't watching either of them and instead was still washing Mikasa's horse. Grinning slightly to herself, Colette grabbed another bucket of soapy water and stealthily crept up behind Eren, who still wasn't watching her and was absently humming a tune she didn't recognize.

Desmond spotted her, and snorted slightly as he tried not to laugh. Eren looked up at him questioningly, but didn't have time to ask what he was finding funny before Colette dumped the contents of the bucket onto his head.

"Gah! What the-?!" Eren spluttered, jumping a foot in the air and retreating away from the corporal's apprentice. "What was that for?"

"Levi said I could." She gave him an innocent look, and Desmond roared with laughter.

"Alright, that's enough." They all looked up at the sudden voice, the two boys immediately standing at attention and Colette giving a sheepish wave when they recognized the corporal. "How's it coming along?"

"We're done, sir." Colette informed him, shifting into a more formal attitude.

"Good. Ready to go, then? We still have time for some training." Levi said to his apprentice.

Colette nodded, and started to walk to his side when Eren spoke up. "Uh, sir... Did you really give her permission to dump water on my head?"

"Of course. I figured you'd need a bath after today's work." And with that, the duo walked off.

* * *

Colette groaned, and faceplanted into the mane of her black and white horse as they walked along. She was tired after all the cleaning work, and while it had sounded fun that morning, training didn't sound as pleasant now that she'd exhausted herself by cleaning.

She hadn't felt tired at first, but Levi forced her to take a bath before they left, and relaxing in a tub of hot water just made her want to go crash in her bed. At least it had worked the cramps out of her bound wings for once, but she was still too tired to have a proper sparring match. Why had he made her take a bath before training, anyway? She was just going to need another right after.

Her confusion doubled when Levi pulled on his reins to turn right at the fork in the road. The road to the left led to the training field, and the road to the right led into the city. She followed obediently, but sped up a little to ride alongside him so she could ask, "Um, sir... Where are we going?"

"You look half dead, so we may as well take a break instead of training and I figured a trip to the city would be nice. Besides, we can see if the Garrison are still being drunken idiots." He replied easily.

"Oh." Was all Colette said.

They continued on for a few minutes before entering the city. People that were going about their usual daily routine looked up as they passed, and many either gawked at the fact that Levi was there not on a mission, or stared at Colette's odd features.

She looked down slightly, trying to ignore the stares. It was normal, people had done it her entire life and since she used to live in a rather large town, she'd dealt with it every day. It never became easier, though. She jumped slightly when she felt a hand lightly brush against her shoulder, and a moment later her hood fell over her face. She adjusted it slightly so she could see, and looked up at Levi. He pulled his hand back and while his face still portrayed no emotion, his steel colored eyes looked slightly apologetic, probably for touching her. Colette gave a faint smile before reaching over and pulling his own hood over his head, though she was nice enough not to cover his eyes. He just gave her an annoyed look, but didn't remove his hood.

They continued on, Levi watching around to make sure the Garrison were doing their job, and found themselves in a market district. The corporal looked around a moment, before climbing off his horse and handing the reins to Colette. "Where are you going?" She asked.

"Over there. Hanji asked me to get something for her, and it was the only way she'd agree to clean the dungeon." Levi grumbled, walking off in the direction of a market stall that had lots of glass containers of different herbs.

Colette leaned back in her saddle with a slightly bored look, glancing around and listening in on different conversations randomly. Marketplaces were known for being areas where people gathered to share daily gossip, she figured at least some of it might be interesting. Apparently, a bread shop had recently caught fire, something randomly exploded in a blacksmith's forge, and there was supposedly an affair going on between a livestock farmer and the owner of the aforementioned bread shop's wife. Colette rolled her eyes at the last one, and was about to focus on the conversation about the explosion again when she instead overheard a couple of guards talking.

"Why did they put him in charge of keeping an eye on that freak, anyway? They should have just let the military police execute him." One of them said.

"Yeah, and what if he turns against us when they least expect it? Do they really think that shrimp can kill him?" The second replied.

"I guess they do, since they put him in charge. Can you believe they gave him a personal apprentice though? Apprenticeships have never been part of our military's training plan, it's just a waste of time." The first commented.

"And it's a chick, too. Why the hell would they let him pick the shrimpiest girl of the entire trainee squad?" The second asked.

"Probably because she's even shorter than him and it'll boost his confidence." They both burst into laughter.

A few moments later, they calmed down and the first spoke up again. "But really, there's something off about her. She looks way too weird to be completely human."

"Think she's like the Titan kid?"

"Possibly. They need to kill them both and knock some sense into that corporal before we all get killed."

Colette was fuming. She couldn't really care less that they'd insulted her, but they had no right to badmouth their superior like that, even if Levi was in a completely different branch. She was glaring daggers out into the crowd of people, trying to find the two guards so she could go teach them their place.

"You look ready to kill someone. Who ruffled your feathers?" Levi's voice suddenly interrupted her search, and she almost jumped out of her skin at the feathers comment.

"It's nothing, sir." She said, turning to him and deciding to let it go for now. If she ever saw them again, however...

Levi gave her a disbelieving look. "Well, alright. It's starting to get dark now, so we should head back."

"Yes sir." Colette nodded, and Levi climbed back onto his horse, taking the reins from her again.

* * *

Once back at the castle, Colette couldn't help but gape at the impressive look of it when everything shone, reflecting the light of the torches on the walls. Levi smirked at her before saying "It'll be dirty again within three days."

"I'm not surprised in the least." Colette chuckled.

The mess hall was, of course, already a complete mess. Luckily it wasn't the level of messy that it was that morning. No wonder they call it the mess hall, Colette thought with a smirk.

Their meal was relatively uneventful, but Hanji did join them for awhile before pestering Levi about the herbs she'd wanted, which he handed over with an annoyed look. The researcher, of course, ran out of the room immediately, yelling something about being able to complete an experiment.

After that, Colette and Levi made their way back to their rooms. Colette was staring blankly at the wall as she thought, but snapped to attention again when Levi started talking.

"Here, I have something for you." He said, reaching into the pocket of his jacket and pulling out a pair of black and white gloves and holding them out to her.

She examined them for a moment. They were fingerless, and the left was white with a black cuff and fingers while the right was black with a white cuff and fingers. "Oh, these are lovely! Thank you, Levi." She said, pulling them onto her hands carefully.

"They looked like you, so I thought you might like them." He told her, ruffling her hair. She pushed his hand away with mock annoyance, and by then they reached their rooms. "Well, good night Colette. Tomorrow actually will be training."

"Okay. 'Night Levi." She yawned, before retreating into her room. She decided against undoing the bandages to stretch her wings, since she'd had a chance to earlier during her bath, and instead just changed out of her uniform before flopping onto her bed carelessly, not even bothering to remove her gloves.

* * *

**Alrighty then, first of all, I'd like to apologize for this being SO late. It's literally entirely my fault, I was procrastinating.**

**Now then, as for the story, this entire chapter is so awkwardly written oh my god. I just wasn't sure how to word any of it, the story wouldn't flow right so I'm sorry if this chapter absolutely sucks. It's also mainly filler, so there's that.**

**Also I picked on Eren more. Oops.**

**Anyway, wow that food fight scene could really be mistaken for something dirty by the way Colette and Levi were talking, oops.**

**Desmond's personality is explained a bit more here. He's become friends with Eren, so like normal teenage boys, they're bound to get into trouble together. He's still absolutely terrified of Levi though. Oh and I described Sasha as redhead because her hair is what, auburn? Maroon? I don't freaking know. I just know I didn't want to say auburnette or maroonheaded so I just called her a redhead.**

**This is probably full of mistakes, but It's three AM and I just want to get back to the anime I was watching so I'm not going to proofread this again.**

**BUT I PROMISE THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE MORE INTERESTING. And hopefully out sooner. Okay maybe not that part... In the next chapter, Levi will probably see Colette's wings fully for the first time, though he's already figured out she has them, or at least suspects she does. Thanks Petra! (also I say 'probably' because I haven't actually written it yet)**

**Oh yeah, and to everyone who's reviewed so far, thank youuuu! Reviews really inspire me to write faster, so if you want the next chapter soon, leave a review and I'll use it to fight my procrastination! Yay!**


	5. Chapter 5

Colette stared at the ceiling. She was so, so utterly bored. It was about two hours after lights out, and she still couldn't sleep. Her wings itched relentlessly, but as much as she wanted to, she couldn't sleep with them free since Levi tended to not leave her room in the mornings until she got up and left with him, meaning she'd have no way to hide them from him.

She groaned. As much as she'd hated her life before she had joined the military, at least she could sleep comfortably. Well, comfortably might not have been the best word, since she did have many sleepless nights as she expected someone to come kill her, but at least her wings hadn't been perpetually cramped.

It had been about a week since clean-everything-before-Levi-kills-you day, and still, no one had found out about her wings. She hadn't expected to make it this far with no one figuring it out. Looking down at the gloves on her hands, she still wished she had the option to tell Levi himself, though.

She rolled over yet again, twisting her sheets into an even bigger, more uncomfortable mess than before, trying to ignore the pain that had even spread to her arms and back from her cramped wings. She tried shifting them ever so slightly, but that only made it worse, and she groaned again in frustration.

The room was completely still for a moment, but it was interrupted by Colette suddenly tossing her tangled blanket off and standing up quickly. Glancing out the window, she noted it was raining heavily. Even if she was brave enough to try it, there was no way she could handle going out in weather like that, her wings simply weren't strong enough. She couldn't even fly in the first place, anyway, bad weather or not.

Deciding instead to just take a walk around the castle, she stepped lightly into the hall. It was dark, most of the torches having been blown out by now, and without them there was a stiff chill in the air, causing her to shiver involuntarily.

She shook her head, and continued down the dark hall, not caring at all about the lack of light. While she was mostly normal, aside from the extra appendages, her eyes most definitely were not. While her right, dark blue eye was pretty normal, the left silver one reflected even the smallest amount of present light, enabling her to see without having to adjust for very long. Though, she'd been staring at her pitch black ceiling for two hours, so her eyes were already adjusted anyway.

She trailed slowly down the halls, passing each of the upper ranking soldiers' rooms. She could hear each one breathing peacefully in their sleep, and was glad they at least wouldn't be half dead in the morning, unlike her.

Before long, she found herself in the mess hall. She stood just inside the door for a few minutes, listening to the rain. While there weren't any windows in this room, the rain was loudest in here for whatever reason that she didn't quite feel like trying to figure out.

"You're up late."

Colette visibly jumped at the sudden voice, and spun around to find Levi seated at the Special Ops squad table in the corner, a cup of what she presumed to be tea sat in front of him. She relaxed slightly, and walked over, sitting in the chair across from him. "You are too."

Levi just kind of shrugged, and went to take a sip of his tea, but stopped halfway and glared into the mug. He sighed and stood, heading towards the kitchen before turning back to her and asking, "Would you like one?" and indicating the empty mug by waving it around slightly.

"Yes please." She replied, and he nodded, disappearing into the kitchen.

A few minutes later, another mug was set in front of her, and Levi returned to his original seat with his own refilled mug. Colette gladly accepted the offered drink, listening to the rain and leaning back in her chair while she took a sip. Though she'd never admit it, she really liked Levi's tea. Just looking at Levi, you'd never expect it, but he actually preferred it very, very strong and quite sweet, so that was exactly how he made it. And he didn't make it for other people very often, either.

"So, why are you up this late? You do realize you have training tomorrow, right?" Levi asked.

"Couldn't sleep. I wanted to, but it's a bit uncomfortable." She answered dully.

"And why is that?"

"Er..." Colette paused for a moment, before deciding to just tell him. "Remember the weird thing with my back that no one can know about ever? It's causing me a bit of grief. Rather painful, really."

"Well, without knowing what it is, I can't help." Levi answered evenly, his face giving nothing away. "But something must be causing it to be that way, so figure out what that is and stop it."

"We'll see." She mumbled, before raising her volume to a normal level to add, "Now, why are you up?"

"Only so many battles can be had in certain weather before those memories attach themselves to that weather." The corporal answered. "And with all battles, come losses."

"Oh, I see." She said, realizing what he meant. "Rain makes me think of some bad times, too."

"Why is that?"

"My parents hated me." Colette said simply. "And sometimes, that caused some pretty bad things to happen."

"Parents should never hate their children." Levi said sadly, shaking his head in disapproval.

"But mine did. And I imagine anyone would have, because of, well..." She gestured generally to herself. "Because reasons."

"Even if they hated you, it doesn't mean everyone would or will. In fact, everyone in this entire branch likes you."

"They'd stop liking me if they knew."

Levi didn't have to ask to know what she was referring to. "The twins don't hate you, and neither do I. And I wouldn't even if I did know." He added with a cough, covering his slight mistake. She didn't notice.

Colette shrugged slightly, having nothing else to say, and downed the last of her drink before standing. "I'm going to go back to bed and try to sleep, you should do the same. There's nothing we can do to change the past, so we shouldn't let it change our present. Thank you for the tea, Levi."

And with that, she left, heading back to her own room.

* * *

The next day came and went, following the usual routine of their schedule. When they weren't on an expedition outside the walls, Colette was either training with Levi or cleaning. It wasn't a bad routine, but the repetitiveness of it was starting to get on her nerves. As much as she hated to admit it, she was bored.

Her training was going well, though she still couldn't quite get Levi's 3DMG technique down. Truthfully, she hadn't actually managed to do the spin successfully at all, she always ended up in a tangled mess of cording, dangling from a tree. Either that or she'd have a rather sudden meeting with the ground. Other than that, however, she was getting pretty good at everything else he had to teach.

She grumbled as she rolled over, irritatedly staring at the far wall of her dark room. Yet again, she couldn't sleep because of her stupid wings and their stupid cramps. The sky was clear tonight, and a full moon illuminated the landscape outside, bathing everything in a silvery light.

Debating for a moment whether or not to actually go through with her sudden, and probably very dumb idea, Colette stood, and removed her light gown before undoing the bandages over her wings. Once those were free, she redid the bandages over her chest, leaving her wings loose.

Retrieving the bottom half of her uniform from the wardrobe, she put it on, then pulled on her boots and grabbed her cloak on the way out of the door, throwing it around her shoulders and effectively hiding her wings.

Instead of going down the stairs toward the main area like she usually would, she turned the opposite direction and went up a different set of stairs instead. At the end of the hall they lead to, she could just spot the start of a spiraling staircase, which she knew went up into one of the four towers around the castle.

It took a few minutes, but eventually, she made it to the top of the spiral staircase and into the tower room. It was unused, so there were a few empty shelves here and there, though they were of course dust-free. When Levi made them clean, he made them clean everything.

Colette went to the window. It was a small, narrow one, made for shooting arrows out of and nothing more, but she was just small enough to fit through it. She stepped up onto the sill, and leaned out slightly, reaching for a grip on the outside of the tower. Finding a good hold, she pulled herself completely out of the window, and carefully climbed up a little ways before the roof came into reach, and she grabbed the edge before hauling herself up.

She gave a relieved sigh. While she was good at climbing, and would have been fine if she'd fallen, it was still a little bit nerve-wracking. She was tempted to just go back to bed, but decided it was a bit late to now. Instead, she carefully walked over to another edge of the roof, looking around for a good place to aim for. Finding one, she removed her cloak and folded it, holding it tightly against her bound chest so as to not lose it. Then, she took a few steps back, before running to the edge and jumping off.

Pale, silvery moonlight shone down onto black and white wings, and a stiff breeze made its way through the feathers, ruffling them slightly. Colette flapped the mismatched limbs, though she knew it wouldn't keep her in the air any longer, since they were too weak to actually fly. She was gliding over the castle courtyard and into a nearby field of grass, but it only lasted a minute or two before she angled her body upright, flapping her wings again to try and come to a steady landing.

She stumbled slightly when she met the ground a bit too fast, but it was definitely one of her better landings. Normally she just ran into walls. She looked up and watched thin, wispy clouds skid quickly across the sky, racing each other to the ends of the horizon. Her wings hung loosely at her sides, no longer cramping, and she started to unfold her cloak.

"Lovely night out, isn't it?"

Colette's blood ran cold when she heard the all too familiar voice, and she spun around, wings snapping back into place behind her and out of sight. "Uh, yeah, it's really great." She squeaked.

"Don't bother, Colette. I already know." Levi said, face straight and voice even.

Colette sighed, and moved her wings back into sight by her sides. Some of the smaller feathers were sticking straight up from nerves and she fiddled with the cloak in her hands anxiously. "So what are you going to do?" She asked in a quiet voice.

Levi looked genuinely confused. "About what?"

"About THIS!" Colette snapped, holding her wings fully extended to each side.

"Absolutely nothing. I don't care, really."

"Wait, what?"

"I've suspected this was your little secret for over a week, it was just strange enough that I wasn't quite sure it would be true or not. Either way, I won't be telling anyone." He said casually. "It's my job to kill Titans, not tell the higher ups about every little thing."

She stayed silent, and gave him a hesitant look. With a sigh, he answered her unspoken question. "No, this doesn't change anything. You're still in the military, you're still on my team, and you're still my apprentice. Just because you have wings doesn't mean any of that is any different. You're still human, and always were."

As he spoke, her animosity from a moment prior faded, and her wings fell, resting against the ground by her feet. Levi barely had time to notice the tears streaming down her face before she'd tackled him, wrapping her arms and wings around him in a tight hug. The corporal gave a very, very faint smile, and set one hand against her back while threading the fingers of the other through her black feathers comfortingly.

After a few moments, Colette stepped away with a faint "Sorry." and stared at the ground awkwardly. Levi just chuckled, taking her cloak from her and clasping it around her shoulders before starting to walk back toward the castle and saying, "Well, come on."

Once back inside the castle, Levi immediately dragged her to the mess hall. She was surprised to see two warm cups of tea already set on their usual table, and gave him a questioning look, though he ignored it and sat down, motioning for her to do the same.

"So start from the beginning."

"What..?" Colette asked, confused.

"Tell me how you ended up here. Your story, basically." The corporal answered her simply, drinking his tea.

"Well..." She began. "It started like this.."

* * *

_"What the hell are we supposed to do with you?" A man angrily shouted, glaring down at the little girl cowering in front of him. She looked about four or five years old._

_"I.. I don't know..." She answered quietly, trembling._

_"Do you know what would happen to our reputation if anyone found out about you?" A woman snapped from her chair on the other side of the room._

_The little girl stayed quiet, wrapping her tiny wings around herself and trying to hide behind her black and white bangs._

_"You're nothing but a curse for us, you little freak." The man yelled again. "Get out of my sight right now, and if I ever see those things again, I'm going to break them!"_

_The girl flinched, and put her hands over her little wings in fear before darting around the man and running up the stairs, her short black tail trailing on the floor behind her._

_"We have to find a way to get rid of her." The woman noted in an annoyed voice. The man nodded._

* * *

_A girl that looked about nine stood in her bedroom, tying white, cotton bandages around her torso tightly, ignoring the sharp pain that came from her small wings as she bound them. She figured she'd be used to it soon enough, at least. It was better than taking chances, as she'd done twice before, both times ending with one of her wings broken. So instead of taking said chances, she'd just have to get used to tying her wings up every morning._

_Tying a knot in the bandages to keep them secure, she pulled on a plain dress with a high neck and long sleeves. She didn't bother brushing her white hair, which had been messily cropped short by her own hand._

_She quietly stepped out of her room, and crept down the stairs. At the bottom, she was immediately met by a perpetually angry-looking woman. "About time you actually got up. Come on, Def, you've got work to do."_

_The girl almost growled at the cruel nickname, but thought better of it. She'd rather not have another scar on her face. Instead, she followed the woman out of the house and into town._

_There, they mainly just bought groceries, all of which the girl was forced to carry. It was surprising she even managed to, the sack of potatoes alone probably weighed twice what she did. She trudged on without complaint anyway, though._

_On multiple occasions during their time out, the woman would trip her when no one was looking, then start yelling at her for dropping the groceries. The passerby would only stop and glare at the girl for being a troublemaker and causing her mother grief, though they had no idea what was really taking place._

* * *

_The girl, now thirteen, stirred from her fitful sleep when she heard the door creak open, which was never a good sign. Her parents never entered her room, but the bloodthirsty people they liked to hire, however..._

_She rolled off her bed just in time to avoid being stabbed, and ducked under and around the dark figure at the foot of it. She snatched a patchy black cloak from where it hung on the wall and ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house, into the rain._

_As much as she'd like to give the wannabe assassin a taste of his own medicine, she was no where near strong enough. Thin as a branch and with no combat training whatsoever, she'd only succeed in getting herself injured, proven by the scars on her chest that had long since healed from the one time she tried to fight._

_With her cloak covering her wings and the hood covering the majority of her white hair, she spent the rest of the night wandering the dark, mostly dead town. Unable to do anything else, she would of course return to her dangerous home at dawn._

* * *

_Cold, emotionless black and white eyes stared unblinkingly, refusing to lose the staring contest with the reddish brown eyes of the man in front of her. He was starting to look slightly uncomfortable, realizing now that the seventeen year old girl could kill him if she tried._

_Her black and white bangs had been styled to cover the scars on her face, and the rest of her white hair was shaved. She spoke slowly, pronouncing each word as if she were speaking to a child. "Here's the deal. You let me join the military, and I'll be out of your lives forever. You won't have to deal with me anymore. And you can stop trying to get me killed, because I'll probably die within the first few years anyway."_

_"You'll just tell someone, and then we'll be ruined." The woman argued from her place in a chair to the side._

_"Then I'll make that part of the deal. You let me join the military, and I won't tell a soul. I could always go show the entire town if you don't let me, though.." The teen threatened._

_"Fine. Do it, and never show your ugly face here again." The man said._

_"Why would I want to?" She snapped, turning on her heel and walking out the door for the last time._

* * *

Levi was staring at her. She looked down at the table, afraid of what he was going to say.

His voice came out as a growl. "They. Did. _What?_"

"I told you they hated me."

The corporal brought his hand up, pinching the bridge of his nose in complete and utter irritation, letting out an angry sigh. "They're lucky I don't know where they are now or their reputation would be the least of their problems."

Colette shrugged.

"You didn't explain the reasoning for the nickname, though." Levi pointed out suddenly.

"Oh, it's not very important. Basically it was another way for them to rag on my flaws." She pulled a hand up from where she had it rested in her lap, and pointed to her right ear. "I'm deaf in this ear."

It was true, she couldn't hear at all out of her right ear. The loss of hearing in that ear had, of course, been from an injury by her father sometime when she was very, very young. For some reason, her hearing in the other ear was abnormally good, which made her wonder what it would've been like if she wasn't half deaf.

"So they nicknamed you Def..." Levi murmured, before speaking up. "Why do you still go by a nickname given to you simply to upset you?"

"I see Colette as a special name that only certain people should be able to use. So, everyone else can call me Def or use my last name." She awkwardly explained. "It's hard to explain, really. I don't expect you to understand my reasoning."

"It's okay, it sort of makes sense." Levi reassured her. "The twins don't call you by your first name, though, and they're some of your closest friends."

Colette just shrugged. "I never really asked them to call me by it. In all honesty, I forgot."

Levi chuckled, finishing his tea. "Come on, we should go to bed. And you should sleep with your wings loose from now on, you should start to feel better."

She did the same, nodding. They both stood, and left the mess hall, walking along the familiar route that led to their rooms. Once they made it there, and were yet again standing in front of their doors, Levi turned to her.

"I'm glad you joined the Survey Corps."

* * *

**So, this chapter was originally really, really short, so the whole "explaining Colette's abusive childhood" thing was like an on-the-spot idea, so I apologize if it's terrible. This entire chapter does a lot of jumping around, too...**

**I actually really didn't want to put any real violence in the flashbacks for some reason, it bothered me a bit when I thought about it. So I only hinted at it mainly.**

**Oh yeah and YAY LEVI KNOWS! Now I promise the story will start to pick up. Things get pretty drama-y from here on out. Well, the next chapter will likely be a bit of filler where Levi helps with her unable-to-fly thing, but after that, things are gonna get chaotic and BLOODY. WOO!**

**Pssst reviews make me update faster...! Tell me what you think of the story, and a little constructive criticism is nice too.**


	6. Chapter 6

"Alright, get up." Levi was leaning against the door frame.

"Why? It's like midnight." Colette asked, looking up from her book.

"You can't actually fly." Levi pointed out flatly.

"I know that!" She turned back to the book.

"Well, it's time you learned."

"Eh?"

Levi didn't explain further, instead going over to her wardrobe and throwing her pants at her. She caught them easily without looking up, her book still open in her other hand as she read the end of the paragraph she'd been on when her superior interrupted. Rolling her eyes, she marked her place in the book with a little black feather and set it aside as she stood.

It only took her a moment to toss aside her gown and change into the white uniform pants, her wings already loose. Levi mocked impatience as she pulled on her boots, sighing dramatically, and she was tempted to throw the book at him. She didn't get a chance to before he suddenly pitched her cloak across the room, however, and she grabbed it before it could land on her head. She could just barely see a faint smirk on his face as she folded her wings and clasped the cloak around her shoulders, and rolled her eyes before following him out of the room.

Walking down the hall, Colette spoke up in a hushed voice. "Now, why do I need to learn to fly?"

Levi gave her an exasperated look. "Your question answers itself."

"But even if I could, I can't put it to use anywhere. If I did, everyone else would just find out."

"You never know when you'll need to know how. Sometimes, we have no choice but to do things we'd rather not, or things we know will have consequences." He was speaking from experience again. Colette gave him a sad, sympathetic look as his expression darkened with memories.

A few minutes later, they'd made it back out to the field from the previous night, and she handed her cloak to Levi absently, looking up at the moon. There were no clouds this time, and the moon itself was starting to wane. She snapped back to attention when he spoke again.

"First, let's see if you can lift yourself off the ground."

"What?" She stared at him. "There's no way I can do that. Have you seen these? THEY'RE TINY."

Levi ignored the white wing that was suddenly shoved in his face, and pushed the feathery limb away. "Try anyway. You'll never get anywhere with that attitude."

Colette huffed at him irritatedly, but started flapping her wings anyway. It obviously took a lot of effort, but she managed to catch a little bit of air and hovered about a foot above the ground for a minute or two before falling back to the grass.

Turning back to the corporal, she noticed he had the infamous blank expression again. "What?" She asked, and he sighed.

"This is going to be a lot of work."

* * *

"Okay, let's try something different."

Colette looked up at Levi in surprise, forgetting to keep moving her wings and landing on the ground with a soft thud. "What." She groaned in annoyance.

"See that tree over there?" She looked to where he was pointing, but didn't bother moving otherwise. "Go climb it and fly from there. No gliding, try to stay in the air."

She groaned again, but dragged herself to her feet anyway and made her way over to the tall, old looking tree. With little effort, she jumped to the first, low-hanging branch, and then to the next, using her wings occasionally for a boost. Once she'd made it to the top, she looked over toward Levi, who motioned for her to go.

For a second nothing happened as she gathered her feet under her, but then she launched out of the tree, wings snapping open and leaves flying in every direction. She did her best to keep in the air, flapping her tired wings to keep the same altitude, and managed to go about thirty feet before finally losing it and tumbling into the grass, which she promptly popped right back out of with an excited expression. "I did it! Sort of.."

Levi chuckled as he walked over to her, and dusted a few loose blades of grass out of her hair. "Do it again, and try turning this time."

Once back in the tree, she did the exact same thing as before, gathering her feet under her and pushing off the branch to launch herself into the air. A few moments after she'd picked up a steady level, she attempted to turn, folding one wing slightly and leaning her weight into that side, and immediately fell into the grass below with a thud.

When the world finally stopped spinning, Colette found herself looking directly up at Levi, who had a completely unamused look on his face. "You can't turn." He stated flatly.

"Um... Apparently not."

He looked like he wanted to facepalm, but instead his brows furrowed in thought. "Hmm... It didn't look like it was your fault at all.."

"Oh wait. Do I need a rudder?" Colette blinked.

Levi snapped his fingers. "That's it."

"Yeah I forgot to mention the wings aren't all, I have a tail too."

"God damn it Colette."

* * *

Colette looked curiously over Levi's shoulder, watching him work. He held an extra pair of her uniform pants in one hand and a needle with white thread in the other, and a pair of scissors were on the table beside her book.

They were sitting on her bed back in her room, Levi having decided it was impossible to progress any further until she could learn to use her tail to turn while flying. She watched in fascination as he expertly modified the article of clothing with an even, practiced stitch. "I don't know how to sew."

"Really?" He looked up for a moment in surprise, before nodding in understanding and turning back to the task at hand. "Right, it makes sense that you never would have had a chance to learn."

"Exactly."

"Here." He tied a knot in the end of the stitch to hold it secure and cut the loose thread, before handing the uniform to Colette. "Go try this."

She stood, and made her way over to the screen to change. It took her a few minutes to undo the bandages her tail was bound under, but she eventually managed to and changed to the modified pants. She excitedly squeaked "This is awesome!" as she stepped back into sight, her tail trailing behind her, and Levi looked up.

"So that's what it looks like, you weren't kidding about the tail." He commented. "Looks like not being used at all your entire life has definitely effected not only your wings, but tail as well."

"Wait, is it supposed to look different?" Colette asked, holding her tail up in front of her and staring at it in confusion.

"It should probably have more or bigger feathers, and since there's no muscle it's a bit thin. You're going to have some trouble using it to change your course." Levi explained. "Anyway, that won't improve unless you get to work building muscle in your wings and tail, so let's go."

Colette groaned, and Levi gave her a sharp look.

* * *

Immediately, Colette found it very, very weird to have her tail loose. She rarely unbound it like she did her wings, so she wasn't used to feeling it brush through the grass as she walked, just barely holding it above the ground.

Levi walked alongside her, an amused look on his face as he watched her jump slightly every time her tail touched something. He kept glancing back at the castle though, wary of any other soldiers that might pick just then to go for a midnight stroll. The coast was apparently clear, however, and they made it back to the field without incident.

Colette stared up at at tree for a moment, before darting up into it quickly, hopping from branch to branch easily and holding her balance with her tail. Levi was nodding slowly, looking slightly impressed.

Once at the top, she did the same as before, and used her feet to launch herself in the air. She unfurled her wings and flapped them a few times, holding her altitude, and tried to turn. Folding her right wing, she shifted her weight to that side slightly, but this time she used her tail to balance herself out. Instead of spinning out of control and crashing into the ground again, she sailed evenly though the air. She turned a few more times for emphasis, looking down at Levi as she basically flew in a lazy circle.

As she'd expected, he motioned for her to fly back down. She did, landing beside him almost silently, her feathers rustling being the only sound. "Not bad." He commented.

"Now can I go to bed?" She grumbled, ignoring the half-compliment.

"Fine, let's go." Levi handed her cloak to her and started off in the direction of the castle. "Consider this part of your training, and be ready again tomorrow night."

"Ehh? WHY?" Colette asked exasperatedly, shifting her wings under her cloak slightly. They were already starting to feel sore.

"Because you never know when you'll need to be able to."

* * *

**Wow okay this is really short and lame and it took me forever to write just this little bit and it jumps around a lot because I didn't have any filler scenes to toss in... Oops.**

**So yes, in this chapter Colette learns to fly. And yes, I decided to make Levi able to sew. It just seems like something he'd know for some reason. The reason he had to modify a pair of pants for her was because she couldn't have used her tail otherwise, unless she went naked and we all know she ain't gonna do that. And speaking of naked, she wasn't at any point in this chapter thanks to the bandages, even though, proofreading it, that's what it sounded like...**

**Things pick up in the next chapter, I promise. Now that she can fly, I can set into motion the next arc of the story, and things are gonna get pretty interesting from here on out. And since that arc is what I've been wanting to write this entire time, hopefully I can update faster because it'll be easier to write a scene I've been wanting to for awhile.**

**Oh and if there's any typos or mistakes in this, I apologize. I was half zoned out while proofreading so I probably missed a ton of mistakes but it's 4AM here and I just wanna get this posted finally.**

**As always, reviews make me update faster _even though they didn't this time because I am a terrible person and procrastinated_ but every time I get a review I'm reminded that people are actually reading this and end up wanting to write more as soon as possible.**


	7. Chapter 7

**TW: Spiders, tadpoles, stupidly high amounts of OOC fluff, and gore (of course)**

**-Note: When you get to the bit where Jean comes in, you can imagine whatever ridiculous or silly song you want-**

* * *

Colette rolled over in bed, trying to ignore the annoying knocking at her bedroom door. Today was the day all of the newer soldiers got a break, and she was NOT going to get up anytime soon.

"Def, come on. You can't waste the whole day sleeping." She heard Martin's voice call.

"Yes I can, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Go away." She called back, voice muffled by her blankets and the door, but she didn't really care if he heard her or not.

"I'll get the corporal." Dave's voice could be heard this time.

"Actually, I should be the one using that threat." She snapped back.

"Hanji, then." Martin said.

Colette growled. Hanji would definitely come drag her out of bed if the twins asked.

"And then I'll call Levi who will force you to help Jean." That shut them up for a second. She smirked, and snuggled deeper into her comforter.

"We could tell Levi about that one thing..." One of them, she wasn't sure which, spoke in a singsong voice.

"He knows." She said flatly.

A unanimous "WHAT?!" sounded from behind the door.

"You heard me." She snapped, finally giving up and rolling out of bed with a thud. She was never going to get back to sleep now, anyway.

She walked to the door, still wearing half of the blankets she'd inadvertently dragged off of her bed. Opening the heavy wooden door, she glanced out into the hall, and found the twins standing there with stupid looks on their faces. She rolled her eyes. "Get in here and maybe I'll explain."

She went back into the room with the twins following her. "So, how did Levi find out?" Ignoring Martin for a moment, she went about her usual morning routine, first shaking the blankets off her shoulders and neatly putting them back on her bed. "And why haven't the military police come for you yet if the secret is out?"

"The secret isn't out. Levi won't tell." She said surely, brushing her hands through her feathers to straighten them. "He taught me to fly, actually."

"That must be why your wings are bigger." Dave noticed.

"What?" Colette held her wings out and examined them. They had, indeed, grown, though not drastically enough for her to notice.

"How long has he been training you in flying?" Martin asked her.

"It's been.. I think a month since he found out?" Colette said. The time had flown by, actually. They'd been on a few expeditions, but nothing major had happened during them, and the walls hadn't actually been breached yet during her time in the Survey Corps. It had been a rather peaceful time, as of recently.

"Well, either way, you'd best be careful. If your wings get much bigger, you won't be able to hide them." Dave pointed out.

"That is true, hmm. I'll have to mention it to Levi." She noted as she folded her wings and reached for another length of bandages. "Why are you making me get up this early today, anyway? We don't have training."

"It's boring around here, which has caused Desmond and Eren to get up to pranking everyone, which in turn caused Jean and Connie to start pranking them, which has made us decide to get back at all of them." Martin finished explaining..

"And you need me, why? And if they're just pranking each other, why do you care?" Colette grumbled, fishing a black shirt out of her wardrobe. Today was laundry day as well, so she didn't have any clean white ones.

"Because it's annoying." Dave said.

"And you do not wanna see what they did to the barracks." Martin said.

"And we're all gonna die when Levi sees it." Dave added.

"It's a mess." Martin agreed.

"Besides, you know you wanna prank them. They're annoying." Dave said.

"Fine, I'll help." Colette finally agreed, rolling her eyes as she tried to remember where she put her boots. "What are you planning?"

"Well, we've only come up with two options so far. A bucket of ice water on one of the doors, and I had an idea to use something in one of those little ponds out in the woods." Martin told her.

"Oh really? So you're still short two pranks?" She asked, and Dave started snickering at the word 'short'. "Shut up, Dave."

"Yeah, and we're not sure which prank to use on who anyway." Martin continued. Colette had finished getting dressed and tidying her room, so she grabbed her cloak and pushed the twins out of her room before following, shutting the door with a faint click behind her.

"Well, I vote Eren gets purple hair." Both twins just blinked. "What? Dyeing your enemy's hair a ridiculous color is one of the best pranks out there."

"Where are we going to get purple hair dye?" Dave asked her.

"Easy, we make it. Most plants around here will make a pretty stubborn dye, too. His hair should stay that way for a few days, at least." Colette explained easily.

"You've done this before, haven't you." Martin stated.

"Do you not remember that day during our first year of training camp where Clara 'mysteriously' ended up with green hair?" Colette gave him a serious look. "It was rather memorable, she woke everyone up screaming and our instructor came in with that funny, freaked out look on his face. I think he thought she was being murdered."

Dave interrupted her happy reminiscing with, "Wait, that was you that did that?"

"Of course. I couldn't resist after she made a snarky comment about my own hair. Pretty sure she figured it out, since she made sure to not annoy me after that."

"You're unbelievable." Martin told her.

"Hey, she started it." She snapped back without force, and then changed the subject. "So, who is where, and how should we go about pranking them?"

"I think Connie and Eren are having a duel or something, for whatever reason,-" Dave started.

"And Desmond is probably watching that. No idea where Jean is." Martin finished.

Colette ignored the slight break in answer when Martin finished Dave's sentence, since it was pretty common for them to do that so she was used to it, and added, "I know where Jean is, Levi told me last night. Apparently he couldn't keep his mouth shut and is still on cleaning duty. I think he's tasked with the kitchen today."

"So that means he's right through here." Dave pointed to the door they were coming up on, they'd reached the entrance to the mess hall.

Martin peeked through the door. "Yep, he's there."

"If we want to make our dye for Eren, we're gonna need in that kitchen. Looks like Jean's first, since we need to get him out of the way." Colette mused. "Well, since we don't currently have a way to get him, I vote we go see this little duel of Eren's and Connie's."

The twins nodded, and she lead the way through the twisting hallways to the front entrance. It wasn't hard to find their idiot friends out in the courtyard, since their 'duel' mainly consisted of running around yelling and trying to knock the other into the dirt. Much like Colette's first training session with Levi, but with more noise. And a much higher amount of annoying.

"Hey Desmond. Who's winning?" Dave asked as they walked up.

"Neither. They're not really trying to though, I think they're just running around for the hell of it." Desmond replied, watching the two run around in pointless circles with one eyebrow raised.

"Sometimes I have to wonder about their sanity." Colette said, turning away and walking towards some flowers growing against the castle wall, and Martin followed her. They were actually looking for a flower that would make a strong purple dye, but Colette found something much more interesting instead, hiding under the large leaves of a plant nestled in with the flowers. "Martin? Go get Dave and meet me back in the castle."

The younger of the twins didn't bother arguing, since he'd learned from experience that she wouldn't explain until they'd done as she asked, and walked off to get his brother while she knelt down and moved the leaves of the plant aside, revealing the fluffy black creature hiding under them. "Well hello there... Would you like to help scare my friend?" She murmured to it, and removed her gloves, stuffing them into her pocket, before picking it up gently.

She turned, and skirted past the three soldiers standing nearby, not wanting them to see her new friend before she could get a chance to introduce it to Jean. Once at the castle entrance, she pushed the door open with one hand and was immediately met by the twins. "So what did you find?" Martin asked curiously.

"This little guy." Colette answered, holding her hands out to show them the palm-sized tarantula sitting there patiently. Martin made an unmanly squeak and quickly backed away, though Dave stayed where he was.

"What exactly are you planning to do with a giant spider?" He asked curiously.

"Prank Jean, duh. He's probably afraid of them." Colette smirked.

"I don't like this idea." Martin had moved to hide behind Dave.

"Too bad, I do." She told him.

Continuing on her way, she walked away in the direction of the mess hall. The twins had caught up to her after just a moment, obviously deciding to see how Jean would react. Martin was trying to ignore the fuzzy little arachnid the entire time, of course. He heaved a visible sigh of relief when they reached the right door and Colette stepped inside, alone. The twins held the door open a crack to watch.

Colette was silent as she made her way through the room, making sure that Jean didn't notice her. It wasn't hard, since he was dancing around with a mop while humming a song she didn't recognize. She rolled her eyes at his terrible attempt at music, and while making a mental note to never allow him to sing within a fifty meter radius of anyone, ever, she was about to speak when the room was plunged into an eerie, shadowy darkness.

She smirked. That was definitely the work of the twins. They must've blocked the windows and blown out the torches while she was distracted. It was still light enough that she knew Jean would be able to see the spider against her pale skin, though. Taking the opportunity the twins gave her to make this that much better, she made sure the spider was visible before looking up at Jean, who was staring in another direction, still unaware of her presence. Thankfully he'd stopped humming that annoying song.

"Hello Jean..." Colette made her voice as childishly high pitched as she could in an eerie tone. "Would you like to play?"

Jean jumped a foot in the air and spun around, facing her, only to come face to face with the tarantula instead. With a squeak like Martin's earlier, he fell backwards, apparently forgetting how legs work. Colette started snickering slightly, and the light came back as Dave uncovered the windows and Martin relit the torches. Jean looked very, very confused. "What was that for?!"

Dave answered him. "That is something called annoyed bystander's revenge."

Jean just shot him a glare, and Colette transferred the spider over to one hand to help him up with the other. "Rude."

"Soo.. Now what?" Martin asked. "That was supposed to get him out of the way."

"What?" Jean looked over at the younger twin.

"Well, no use keeping it from you now. We're pranking all of you guys, and needed to get to the kitchen in order to prank one of the others. You were in the way, and if you found out, we figured you'd tell them and spoil it. We kinda thought the giant fuzzy terror over there would make you run away." Dave explained.

"Oh well I'm definitely telling them now. And you thought a spider would scare me?" Jean gave him a dumbfounded stare, before pointing to the tarantula. "We fight Titans all the time and you thought a spider would make me run away. I'll tell you what I'd run away from, if Titans looked like that thing. Then I would run away because nope."

"Jean." Colette spoke up, in her normal voice. "If you agree to keep quiet, I'll get you out of cleaning duty."

"YES." He agreed without missing a beat.

Colette gestured toward him while looking at the twins, as if to say "And that's that."

* * *

"I can't believe you decided to keep it." Martin looked half scared and half annoyed.

"What? He didn't want to leave!" Colette said as she sliced the flowers they'd gotten into smaller pieces.

"Yeah, he did kinda not let go when she tried to put him down." Dave reminded his brother.

"Isn't there anything against pets here? Especially giant spider pets?" Martin asked exasperatedly.

"I don't see why they would care about whether or not I have a tarantula." Colette argued, picking up her cutting board and dropping the sliced plants into the boiling pot of water next to her. "Er... This is going to take awhile to actually become dye."

"Then I'll stay here and stir it, and you guys can go get the last things we needed for our pranks." Dave said, taking the wooden spoon Colette had just picked up.

"Fine." She relinquished possession of the spoon.

"Come on, we're gonna need some buckets." At Martin's prompt, she dug some buckets out of the kitchen's storage closet and they left the room, walking past Jean. He was still mopping. Well, actually mopping and not dancing around, anyway.

The two walked through the castle and out into the courtyard, then right through the courtyard and out of the castle grounds entirely. Colette glanced curiously at her companion. "Where, exactly, are we going?"

"To those woods over there. There are some ponds there that stay warmer than most others around here because of the trees, and what we need is therefore in those ponds." Martin explained easily.

"Okay, then." She didn't have a clue what they could need that would be in a pond this far from the castle.

They reached the edge of the forest, and Martin walked with purpose in a specific direction, apparently knowing exactly where to go. "Why do I get the feeling you know this forest like the back of your hand?" Colette asked.

"Me and Dave have explored the entire area for miles in every direction from the castle, actually. While you're out flying every night, we're out here learning the land better than the other soldiers in our rank." He told her.

"Do you expect us to play capture the flag at some point or something? Sheesh." She grumbled in response.

"You never know when you'll need to know your way around." He grinned.

"God, you sound just like Levi."

Martin looked like he was planning a sarcastic answer, but instead they reached the ponds he'd mentioned before so they both shut up. He instead took one of the buckets from Colette and dipped it into the water, filling it.

"Okay what's with the bucket of pond water." Colette asked, making it sound more like a statement as she pointed at the bucket.

"It's not just water, it's what's in the water that we need. Look closer." Martin told her, and she examined the water.

"... What do we need tadpoles for?"

* * *

On the way back, Colette got an idea. "Hey, see that stream? We should get some normal water from there, it's probably freezing, judging by the ice on the edges of it."

"Well, okay." Martin said, and stopped for a minute to fill the extra bucket they'd brought with it. "Oh, this is for the classic bucket on the door prank, isn't it?"

"Yes." Colette answered, smirking.

"You really are evil, you know that?"

She just gave him an innocent look as they continued on their way. It was a bit later in the day now, so more soldiers were out and about, doing whatever it was they wanted to do on their day off. They avoided everyone else as well as they could, knowing that a few of them would try to keep them from going through with the pranks if they saw the tadpole bucket.

They made it into the castle without conflict, however, and made their way back to the mess hall. Jean was standing right outside, and immediately pushed them into the room. "Connie's on his way, and Dave thinks you should prank him when he gets here, so set something up!"

"Random. Okay, we can use the ice water." Colette decided. "... Give me a boost, please."

Martin set down the bucket of pond water, and lifted her by the waist straps of her 3D Maneuver Gear harness, allowing her to reach the top of the door. "You weigh practically nothing." Martin commented as she attempted to balance the icy water on the top of the door.

"Shut up." She snapped, letting go of the bucket and when it stayed she added, "Now PUT ME DOWN."

Martin did as told and set her gently back on the ground before retrieving the remaining bucket. "I hate being short." She mumbled as they walked to the kitchen.

"Awww, you're not short, you're just... Uh..." Martin wasn't actually sure where he had been going with that. Colette glared at him.

"Oh hey, you're back. I think it's done." Dave said as they entered, and Colette immediately started laughing when she looked at him. "What?"

Martin answered instead, since Colette currently couldn't form a sentence in her state of intense amusement. "Why are you wearing a frilly pink apron?"

"I didn't want to get purple on my uniform..." Dave answered embarrassedly.

"I'm not even going to ask where you found that." Colette said, recovering from her laughing fit. She moved to check the dye, which was still gently simmering. "Yeah, it's a bit thin, but I think it'll do the trick."

Martin was about to answer, but was interrupted by the voice of Jean, echoing in from the hall. "Oh hi Connie."

The three immediately ducked out of the kitchen and into the mess hall, walking toward the door, which was starting to open. Connie pushed the door wide and went to step into the room, but the bucket fell, and he was suddenly soaked in cold water with a bucket on his head. "Um... What just happened?" The twins both started laughing at the muffled voice that came from the bucket.

Colette stepped forward and freed Connie from his new hat, before taking a towel she'd grabbed from the storage closet in the kitchen ahead of time and wrapping it around him, much in the way Eren liked to wrap scarves. The sight of the newly mummified soldier set the twins, who had started to calm down, laughing all over again.

"I'm still confused." Connie said, voice muffled this time by the towel.

"We're pranking people today." Colette explained.

"They got me with a spider." Jean spoke up from the doorway.

"Oh." Was all Connie said, before adding "Can I help?"

"Hell yes. Where are Desmond and Eren?" She asked him.

"Heading for the showers, last I knew." He replied.

"We don't have much time to get them, then." Martin noted.

Colette walked off, back into the kitchen, and retrieved the purple dye with the bucket she still held. When she came back, they were all still standing where they had been when she'd left. "Well? Let's go before they finish their showers." She snapped, and they nodded.

The group walked down the hall, toward the showers. Colette made Connie lead the way, since she didn't actually know where the first floor showers were. Levi always made her use the upstairs baths that were reserved for the squad leader, so she'd never been to these.

When they finally made it, Colette and Martin walked into the large room. There were multiple small showers along the walls on either side, with large shelves above them to hold buckets of water until they were needed. Eren and Desmond were talking through the walls, so it wasn't hard to find where they were. She nodded to Martin as they both reached up to replace the water buckets with their pranks.

So that was why Levi made her bathe upstairs. She couldn't even reach the shelf, and gave it a hard glare while Martin did it for her. Levi probably couldn't reach these shelves either.

They stepped back out into the hall with the others, and waited. They could still hear Eren and Desmond talking, though Colette didn't bother listening close enough to figure out what about. After a few minutes, Armin walked up.

"Um.." He looked at Dave for a moment, who was still wearing the pink apron, before looking around at the rest of them. "Why is everyone gathered out here?"

Colette spoke up before any of the others could. "Hey Armin, do you think Mikasa will kill me when she sees Eren?"

"Well, it's very possible. What did you do?" The blond asked. It was right then that Desmond starting screaming. Like a girl, no less. He probably finally found the tadpoles. The entire group started snickering as they tried to hold back their laughs, though Armin just looked confused.

"You'll see." Colette managed. "Go save Desmond and you'll find out."

Armin, with another confused look, went into the room. Colette motioned for Connie to go help, since she knew Jean wasn't going to, and the twins probably wouldn't either. Desmond quieted down pretty quickly after that, so they knew Armin and Connie had rescued him from the frog spawn shower of terror.

A few minutes later, all four of them walked out of the room and back into the hall. The two pranked boys were partially dressed, though Desmond had a towel around his shoulders and Eren had one on his head. Desmond looked absolutely traumatized.

"Def, I understand the question you were asking me earlier, and I can answer you this; yes, Mikasa is definitely going to want to kill you." Armin said with a grin, trying to suppress a laugh. Eren shot him a look, much like when Colette was warning people not to laugh at her short stature.

"So, Eren, let's see your new look." She prompted with a smug look. "I'm sure you look lovely in purple."

Eren turned the look on her, though did as she said and pulled the towel off of his head. His hair was a rather obvious, bright purple, though it looked a bit closer to magenta or dark pink in the light from the wall torches. "This is so embarrassing." The Titan shifter grumbled.

"Too bad!" She answered in a singsong voice, which made Jean cringe. "Oh, Desmond there's still one in your hair."

She didn't have to explain what she meant, the brunette was immediately running down the hall away from them while shaking his hair out and saying "Nope nope nope nope nope nope!" until they couldn't hear him anymore.

"There wasn't really, was there?" Jean asked.

"Nope." Colette answered, and that single word almost made her start laughing again. "Who knew he was so afraid of tadpoles?"

Martin sheepishly raised a hand. That actually did make Colette start laughing.

Eren spoke up then. "Dave, why the hell are you wearing a pink apron?"

"Um... To make you feel better about.. Your hair...?"

The Titan shifter facepalmed.

* * *

Colette wandered through the castle halls, looking for Levi. She wasn't quite sure where he would be, since she hadn't seen him all day. He was probably in his office, she just couldn't remember where that was.

Eventually, she stumbled across a small, out of the way room, which looked like it was rarely used for anything, but it was clean to Levi's standards aside from the paint supplies scattered around. Petra sat at an easel by the large bay window, overlooking the courtyard, and was staring out into the landscape with her paintbrush held against her lips in thought.

"Oh, hello Petra." Colette greeted her. The strawberry blond looked up in surprise. "What are you painting?"

"Hello Co- you prefer Def, don't you?" Colette nodded. "Well Def, I'm trying to get the landscape on this image right. It doesn't quite want to cooperate."

Colette stepped closer and peered over her shoulder at the painting. It was of a blue butterfly, its wings tinged with gold, sitting on a flower in front of a lake. The butterfly was the only thing with any color, the background being entirely in black and white. "It's beautiful!"

"I'm glad you like it, but..." Petra stared at it with an unsure look. "It just doesn't look right, like there's something missing."

"Add another butterfly, maybe? Like one that doesn't have color, and color is spreading to it from the other butterfly?" Colette suggested.

"I like that idea, actually. Okay, let's try that." Petra dipped her brush into her black paint, and started painting the second butterfly's body. "So what have you been doing with your day off?"

"Well, the twins dragged me out of bed this morning to go prank some of the others. Don't be surprised when you see Eren's hair. I uh, dyed it purple." She told her, and Petra looked like she wanted to laugh, but didn't to keep from smudging the paint.

The artist kept her eyes on the canvas as she replied. "You're pretty good friends with the twins, aren't you?"

Colette nodded. "The others in our trainee squad never bothered to pay much attention to me, but the twins wanted to know why my hair and eyes were colored like this, why I was so reserved, why I didn't trust anyone, hell, they wanted to know my whole life story. They thought I was interesting, I guess, and they've stuck around ever since I told them all of the answers to their questions that I did know."

"It's good to always have one or two true friends. Even if you have no one else, you'll still have them."

"That's true. I'm not sure what I would do without those two dorks." She admitted. "I've only known them for three years, but it feels like they've been with me forever, and I honestly probably wouldn't have graduated without them there."

"It's a good thing you met them, then." Petra noted, washing her brush and picking up green paint on it instead. "You know, I shouldn't really tell you this, but... I think you had a similar effect on Levi."

"No way." Said corporal's apprentice looked at her in disbelief.

"Yep. He seems more confident in humanity winning, in us beating the Titans, since you showed up. It's like what would have happened if Eren couldn't turn into a Titan, but still had something that made him Humanity's Greatest Hope, like something Levi could believe in helping us win without turning against us accidentally." Petra said, carefully painting green wings onto the butterfly. "You're also a lot like him. I think he feels less alone with you around."

"You think so?" She couldn't even try to believe that, not fully. There was no way she had helped Levi just by joining the Survey Corps.

"It's definitely possible. Only he could say for sure, and I doubt he will." The strawberry blond chuckled, washing her brush out again. She picked up silver paint this time. "So what else did you do today, other than prank your comrades?"

"Well, I got a pet." Colette said, then added sheepishly, "As a, uh, side effect of the pranking..."

"A pet, huh? I hope it doesn't shed, or make any sort of mess at all for that matter. As much as Levi likes you, he won't stand for a pet that messes up the perfectly clean state of his castle."

"It's a tarantula."

Again, Petra's artist instincts kept her from reacting and smudging the paint. She gave Colette a sideways glance. "We have tarantulas around here? I've never seen one."

"Apparently so. He was just out in the garden this morning."

"Well, sounds like a perfectly acceptable pet to me." Petra noted, and leaned back in her chair. "There, I think I'm done! What do you think?"

Colette looked over her shoulder again. There were now two butterflies, the original blue and gold one, and a new green and silver one. They were sitting next to each other on the flower with their antennae touching, and the color was spreading to the green butterfly through that point. The green butterfly was otherwise only half colored, the rest of its wings were black and white like the landscape. "Aww, now it's cute as well as pretty."

"I do like it much better now. Thanks for the help." Petra stood, stretching. "You should let me paint your tarantula sometime, I bet he's adorable."

"Sure, I'll do that." Colette agreed. "Also, do you know where Levi's office is? I kinda, sorta, might have forgotten."

Petra chuckled. "Seven doors down this hall, on the right."

"Thanks." And with that, she ducked out of the room.

* * *

"Levi?"

The corporal looked up at her. She was peeking in the door to see if he was busy, which he probably was. There were stacks of paper all over his desk, neatly organized of course, and he held a quill in one hand, halfway through writing something. He motioned her over anyway, though, setting aside his work for now. "What do you need?"

"Nothing. But I brought tea." She said, and it was only then that he seemed to notice the two cups of tea she was carrying. "Figured you might want some, you haven't left this room all day."

Levi shrugged. "Those of us with high enough rank to get personal offices also get mountains of paperwork to do in said offices. Those idiots over in the military police are probably just too lazy to do it themselves." He grumbled. Colette didn't answer, instead holding one of the cups out to him. He reached up to take it, though paused halfway there. "You're still wearing those gloves?"

She looked at her hand after he'd taken the cup. "Yeah, I don't see why I wouldn't. I like them."

He hummed in response. "You can stay in here for awhile if you like." He offered, since she was thinking about whether she should leave or not and he could probably guess that's what was going through her head.

"I won't be bothering or distracting you?" She asked, unsure.

"Of course not."

Colette nodded, and went to sit in the free chair on the opposite side of the desk from Levi, but flinched harshly as a sharp pain went through one of her wings. "What's wrong?" He asked, standing up.

"Just a cramp in my wing again, it's not that bad."

"I can tell it is." Levi snapped, before sighing and going over to the door, which he closed and locked. "Go ahead and untie your wings for awhile, we probably won't get out tonight anyway. We should both catch up on sleep, I think."

"Hmm, okay." Colette wasn't sure whether to be sad that she wouldn't get to fly, or happy that she'd get to sleep instead. It was hard to decide which thing she liked better.

A few minutes later, the two were in their respective chairs, Levi working and Colette relaxing with her wings loose. A comfortable silence had fallen between them, and Colette was occasionally alternating her gaze from the ceiling to her jacket, which was neatly folded on the floor by her chair, and back to the ceiling again as she thought. She really wanted a book, but hers was back in her room and she didn't feel like bandaging her wings again just to go get it.

And that was how they stayed, for a long time. Levi was halfway through another stack and a half of paperwork, and Colette was falling asleep. There was a quiet snapping sound though, and Levi swore slightly.

"What's wrong?" She asked. He was staring at his quill in annoyance.

"My quill broke." He said, holding it up to show her. "I don't have another, either.."

"Oh, I can help with that." She told him, sitting up straight from where she'd been sprawled in her comfy chair, and held her black wing up slightly. She casually plucked one of the flight feathers and held it up to her superior. "Here."

Levi took it hesitantly, turning it over gently in his hands for a moment. "Thanks." He said, before taking a small knife that was sitting on his desk and starting to cut an ink tip into the feather's quill. Colette just nodded, sprawling back into the cushioned chair again.

"Oh yeah, can you take Jean off of cleaning duty?" She asked, suddenly remembering.

"And why would I want to do that?" The corporal asked.

"Because I said I'd get you to if he kept his mouth shut about the pranks earlier..?" She said sheepishly.

"Oh, is that so?" Levi was trying not to smirk, she could tell. "Hmm, and why would I? I don't remember agreeing to that."

"Because I'm your favorite apprentice and you love me?" She said in a silly, high pitched voice and puppy expression.

Levi snorted, trying to keep from laughing, but ended up laughing anyway. Colette soon joined in, and to anyone outside they probably sounded like Hanji when she found out something interesting about anything she was studying.

It didn't take long for the corporal to regain his composure, but he couldn't seem to be able to keep a soft smile off his face. Colette was just grinning at him like an idiot. "Okay, you win. Jean's free from cleaning duty, until he gets in trouble again at least."

"Yay! Thanks Levi!" She said, somehow managing to tackle and hug him.

"Ack! Get off!" His sound of protest was muffled by feathers and she completely ignored him.

* * *

"Colette, wake up. NOW." She snapped awake. Levi was shaking her gently. She knew immediately that something was very, very wrong, because he never touched her without permission.

"What's happened?" She said, getting up and quickly getting her uniform.

"The wall's been breached." Was all he said, fetching the bandages from her nightstand drawer.

"Where?" She asked, folding her wings and letting him tie them for her.

"The Klorva District."

"How bad is it?" He'd finished tying the bandages, and she moved on to her uniform, which only took her a minute to put on.

"The Garrison can repair it, but we have to help defend them while they do so."

She moved on to the Maneuver Gear straps. "What's the situation with the civilians?"

"Probably mostly evacuated by now." He said, helping her with the overly complicated harness.

"Good."

And with that, she stepped into her boots and Levi threw her cloak at her, which she caught and clasped it around her shoulders. She was then practically dragged out of the room by the corporal, and the two ran down the hall towards the armory that held their gear. The rest of the Survey Corps were running every which way as well, all in various stages of readiness.

Reaching the armory, they both grabbed their respective sets of gear, and Levi checked on the fuel level in his while Colette refilled her spare blades. Once done with that, the two attached their Maneuver Gear to their harnesses and dashed back out of the door and toward the courtyard.

The Special Operations squad were already there, waiting for them in the early morning half-light. Colette nodded a thanks when she noticed her and Levi's horses were already fully tacked and waiting, and Petra nodded back at her as she pulled herself into the saddle of the black and white horse. Levi took off immediately, leading his squad out of the castle gates.

They rode at full speed, so the trip didn't take long, fifteen minutes at most. Once they made it and were let through the gate, they could see the full extent of the damage within.

"Oh my god, they're everywhere." Colette breathed. Levi looked over at her, and she knew he was thinking exactly the same thing she was. This was her first real encounter with Titans.

"Your orders, sir?" Eren asked, his bright purple hair a stark contrast to the reddish tone of the district's architecture.

"Kill them." Levi stated simply. "Petra, Gunther, you two go check on the wall breach. The Garrison teams of this area should be there, as well as Hanji's squadron. The rest of you, fan out and try to clean up a bit."

They all nodded, and took off in different directions. Oluo, Eld, and Eren switched to their Maneuver Gear alongside Levi and Colette, leaving their horses at the gate, while Petra and Gunther rode off to the far side of the district.

Levi took off immediately toward a group of three Titans, though not before signaling to Colette for her to follow. She did, using her gear to propel herself through the air right beside him, keeping up easily. He branched off to the right suddenly, and with a practiced swing cut deeply into the weak spot on the first Titan, killing it. Colette did the same to the closest Titan on the left, landing on its shoulder after hitting its neck, and jumped to the next one as it started to fall. The second one tried to grab her, but she vaguely copied Levi's signature move to spin out of its reach. This would have worked wonderfully, had she remembered she couldn't actually do his signature trick, but instead she remembered a moment too late that she didn't know how to stop the spin and therefore lost control before plummeting toward the ground.

She braced for a rather painful impact with the ground far, far below, but it never came. Instead she was suddenly suspended midair, and looked up to see Levi had come over just in time to catch her by the neck of her jacket. "Oh, hi Levi."

"You are not actually very good at this, are you?" He asked, before tossing her up toward the roof of the building he was hanging from. She landed easily, and he was beside her a moment later. "Well, come on, and try it again."

She almost smiled at the familiar words. Unlike the rest of the trainees or graduates, he'd never actually gotten mad at her for failing, instead he always told her 'try it again'. "Yes sir, Levi."

"Oh, and Colette?" She looked up. He continued in a quiet voice, leaning slightly closer so she could hear him. "Just try not to get eaten, will you?"

* * *

"Ha! Take that, you... You, uh.. Giant streaker!" Colette yelled as she killed another Titan, successfully.

"Giant streaker?" Levi looked over at her with an 'are you serious?' expression. "You have got to be kidding me. Giant streaker? Really, Colette?"

"I'm not good with insults, okay?" She smirked when he almost ran into a wall because he was distracted by talking to her. "Running into walls? You have got to be kidding me. Really Levi?"

"I did not actually run into that wall, and the fact I almost did was your fault anyway because you called that Titan a giant streaker and how did you even come up with something as lame as that?"

"They're giant and naked, Levi!" He suddenly snorted, trying to keep from laughing. "What.. Oh my god Levi get your mind out of the gutter!"

"Okay, get back to work. We've got a job to do, you know." He said, suddenly serious again.

"YOU'RE THE ONE THAT STARTED IT." She yelled as she swung by another Titan, cutting a chunk out of its neck. Levi just ignored her as he did the same a few buildings over.

Landing on a roof, Colette stopped for a moment to change her blades. She managed to remove the dull ones and was about to equip another set of sharp ones when a huge hand suddenly closed around her middle, effectively trapping her arms. She struggled as she was lifted into the air and her captor studied her with a blank stare.

"Uh oh." It started to move her toward its face. "Um... LEVI!"

The grip on her midsection immediately lessened as the Titan started to fall, blood flying every which way after Levi cut the back of its neck. Colette jumped to the nearest roof, managing to land on the edge of it though she stumbled a bit. Levi landed on the roof as well, and reached out to steady her. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Fine." She said, before lapsing into a rough coughing fit. "Just a little squished."

"I think we should go check on the wall breach. We've been here far too long and they're still coming." Levi decided once his apprentice seemed to be able to breathe again. "Something might have gone wrong."

"Agreed." Colette nodded.

With that, the two took off toward the western edge of the district. They actually passed far more soldiers than Colette had originally suspected were there, and realized they must've gotten reinforcements at some point. She didn't see anyone she recognized fighting, however.

Once they reached the wall, it became apparent that it wasn't going very well. There were multiple dead bodies strewn about the ground, and she thought she recognized a few. A couple of Titans made their way through the small hole in the wall as they came closer, though they were immediately killed by Hanji and Martin.

"What's taking so long?" Levi yelled to them, killing another Titan.

"They're almost done, it was a lot bigger when we got here." Hanji informed him. Levi just grumbled in response, though Colette was the only one close enough to hear it. She was right, it looked like it was almost repaired to the point that even the smallest Titans wouldn't be able to fit through. But they did still have to deal with the ones already in the walls, which were quickly heading back in this direction.

The rest of Hanji's squad, including Martin, took off to kill the approaching Titans, and Colette could see Petra and Gunther fighting off a couple more in another direction.

Some did manage to get past Martin and the others, though, and two ganged up on Hanji, who only noticed one. Colette was about to attack the second and help her out, but a protesting hiss from her gear decided otherwise. She fumbled with it a moment, but it was hopeless effort as her gear had completely malfunctioned.

She looked up again just in time to see Hanji injure the first Titan, but the second snatched her right out of the air by the cord of one of her grappling hooks. She dangled for a moment as the Titan stared at her, probably deciding whether to kill her first or just go ahead and eat her.

Levi ran past Colette, intent on saving the other squad leader, but the Titan Hanji had injured had other plans. It turned, seeing the corporal, and simply swatted him away. He landed with a loud crash a few feet back.

Was he actually reckless just now? Colette was almost stunned, Levi never lost his cool in battle. The fact he'd get reckless trying to save a teammate had to mean he cared about them a lot more than he'd ever let them know. The apprentice looked up suddenly, her silver eye glowing a fierce gold, almost orange, color.

She was not going to let Hanji die.

Making a split second decision that she knew would cause her endless trouble later, Colette unhooked her Maneuver Gear, and it clattered to the ground loudly. She tossed her cloak aside, which was quickly followed by her jacket and the rest of the top half of her uniform, leaving her in only the infamous bandages that had protected her secret for far too long. She retrieved one of her swords and quickly cut it free from the rest of the gear, before using it to recklessly slice down her own back against her spine, cutting all of the bandages loose.

Differently colored wings sprung out to her sides, and she leapt forward and into the air. Only a few seconds had passed, so Hanji was still dangling, though was now worryingly close to the Titan's gaping mouth. Colette flew up toward the researcher, dodging the injured Titan as it reached for her by pulling her wings close and spinning through the air and out of its reach. She successfully pulled out of this spin and, with a few more strong beats of her wings, was now close enough to slice through the tendons of the Titan's hand.

Hanji fell, and Colette dove after her instantly, before catching her and pulling her close. She tried to slow their descent with her wings, but her overexertion of the weak, feathery appendages made them too fatigued to help and they crashed to the ground anyway, though it wasn't enough of a landing to hurt either of them much.

That was when time seemed to stop. Colette didn't notice the two Titans standing above them, or the amount of soldiers standing on nearby rooftops in shock, or even the fact her top half was bare.

Instead she was completely focused on the Titan researcher sitting in front of her.

"What are you?" Hanji breathed, her expression unreadable.

"I don't really know." Was all Colette could think to say.

She was brought back to reality when a cloak was gently clasped around her shoulders, covering her bare torso. She didn't even have to look to know it was Levi, or that it was his cloak and not her own. He crouched down beside her, glancing between both girls. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think we're both fine." Hanji answered, Colette just nodding mutely as she noticed the Titans had all been killed.

Levi then turned his attention entirely to his apprentice. "That was reckless and stupid and you shouldn't have done it. Do you realize what might happen now?"

She decided to collapse against him. "If I hadn't done it, she would've died. And I don't think you or humanity itself could go on quite the same without our favorite mad scientist." She mumbled against his jacket.

"Next time just try not to put yourself in that much danger." He grumbled, knowing she was right.

"Our entire lives are nothing but danger, Levi. And I probably won't get a 'next time', now that everyone knows. It was worth it though. I saved a life, and while that may not seem like much in this world, it feels like an accomplishment to someone who thought they'd never be able to do anything remotely useful. I was able to use my curse for something good, even if just once."

* * *

"Hold still, you're bleeding." Colette cringed slightly as Levi dabbed a wet cloth against the deep gash in her back. "What made you think this was a good idea?"

"I had a few seconds to act, I wasn't thinking at all." They were sitting off to the side, but still in the same area as a few minutes prior. Everyone was either helping the Garrison with the repaired wall, looking for or tending to the injured, before they were to head back to the castle. With most of the Survey Corps there, Colette wanted to melt into a puddle under the shocked stares of so many of her comrades, who could all clearly see the wings half-folded around her. She buried her face in Levi's cloak, which she held tightly against her chest, trying to ignore the inevitable feeling of her world crumbling.

Levi threaded his fingers through her feathers gently. "Don't look so scared. I don't think it's going to be as bad as you think."

"They probably hate me now." She mumbled into the cloak.

"Who? Your comrades? I think they'll understand, if they don't already." He assured her. She just gave a negative "Mrf." in reply.

Taking a new set of bandages, Levi started to wrap her torso again after taking the cloak from her hands and setting it aside. He decided to let her keep the wings loose, since there wasn't much point in hiding them anymore.

Once her chest and the wound on her back were properly covered, she picked up the cloak again and they both stood. She was about to put the cloak on again when Hanji ran up out of nowhere. "I think you need to see this." Was all she said, looking at Colette, before dragging them both down the road.

She eventually stopped at a group of soldiers standing together, looking down at something. As they neared, Colette's heart dropped when she realized that they were all from her trainee squad, and she ran up to stand beside Talia.

Tears started streaming down her face when she saw him. Martin was sitting on the ground sobbing, holding tightly onto his unmoving, pale brother, and there was a pool of blood still spreading over the cobblestone street from the slain twin. Colette stepped closer before dropping to her knees beside her friend, and pulled him close. He hesitantly let go of his brother and held onto her instead, burying his face in her shoulder. "Dave..." He stuttered on the word, and gave a high pitched cry of anguish. The sound made Colette feel like her heart was physically breaking for the distressed teen.

"I know, Martin. I know." She whispered, wrapping her wings around him gently. She stared at the blood quickly staining their white uniforms as her head spun and her thoughts went in all directions. She'd saved Hanji, but hadn't been able to save one of her best friends, the twin of her other best friend. Colette had been happy for saving the researcher earlier, but now she just felt hollow. "I'm sorry, Martin. _I'm so sorry._"

* * *

_**I AM ACTUALLY VERY SORRY FOR THIS**_

_**I'M A CRUEL WRITER**_

**Anyway, finally finished it! While it may seem like I've been procrastinating, I actually haven't for once! I actually worked on this for about two hours every night ever since I posted the last chapter, and it's not that surprising it's taken me this long to finish it because this is over 8000 words (that's a quarter of the entire fic, just in this one chapter)**

**First of all, I'm going to answer a few questions this chapter might raise: One, no, the tadpoles were fine, Martin rescued them after the prank. Two, Levi was cutting the tip of the feather because you actually have to cut them into a specific shape in order to write with them. Three, Colette didn't check on Levi after the Titan swatted him away because she knew Hanji dying would be a lot worse to him than getting injured there. Also, yes, Levi was trying not to laugh at a perverted thought when Colette said Titans are 'giant and naked' (I highly doubt he's dirty minded at all, but I couldn't resist writing that scene)**

**Wow okay, this is a huge emotional roller coaster. First it's funny, then it's kinda fluffy, then it got dark so freaking fast and then it was sad. Also Levi is very OOC im sorry**

**I added a bit of Colette and Levi fluff too because, well, looks like they MIGHT end up together or something. I haven't decided yet, but it seems that's what everyone's wanting or expecting, so...**

**Oh yeah, and if you can figure out what Petra's butterfly painting is referencing, cookies to you. It's quite subtle, but really cool I think when you figure it out.**

**Also, for the song Jean was humming, I found it most hilarious to imagine 'What the Fox Says', 'Wrecking Ball', or any Kesha or Lady Gaga song. (why am I picking on him and Eren so much? I like them as serious characters too but they're such great idiots to bully) oh yeah and sorry for the tarantula. I'll try not to describe or mention him much, since so many people are terrified of spiders, but the story really kinda needed him.**

**Anyway, it is now almost five AM and I want to go to bed so I'm gonna shut up now. As always, reviews make me want to write more!**

**PS I'm so sorry for making Dave so likeable and then killing him. I already regret this decision ****_but someone needed to die in this chapter_**


	8. Chapter 8

**WARNING: THIS IS FLUFFIER THAN A SILKIE CHICKEN (look it up they're like little puffballs on legs)**

**SERIOUSLY FLUFFY AS HELL**

* * *

Levi watched Colette closely as they rode back to the castle. She still wore his cloak, which was covering her wings and she'd pulled the hood over her head, watching the ground as her black and white horse unenthusiastically trudged on. It seemed the animal could sense its master's despondent mood, as well. Levi knew he could.

The corporal reached over, putting a hand on his apprentice's shoulder. She looked up at him, just enough that the light made its way past the hood to light up her face, and Levi blinked. Instead of one being dark blue and the other silver tinted gold, her eyes were flat black and white. He supposed that made sense, since they seemed to change color depending on her mood, but the flat monotone colors were downright depressing and didn't fit her at all. He gave her a sympathetic look, but she just looked back to the ground with a slight huff.

His brows creased with worry. Was she mad at him? Maybe she'd decided to blame him for Dave. It was possible, since it was partly his fault she'd had to save Hanji, as he'd failed to do it himself, and Dave had been killed around the same time. If she hadn't been focused on Hanji, she was probably thinking she'd have been able to save the older twin. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been blamed for the deaths of soldiers, anyhow.

When they finally arrived back at the castle, the two started to remove the tack from their horses. Since his apprentice was working slowly, staring blankly ahead as she undid the saddle's buckles, Levi was done first and moved on to brush the black fur of his horse.

Hanji came over to them, then. "Colette, when you're done there, can you head by my lab?" She asked in a gentle voice, far from her usual, excited way of talking.

Colette just nodded slightly with a faint "Okay." Hanji gave her an unsure look, so Levi spoke up.

"I'll bring her." Reassured, the researcher nodded and vanished. Levi finished brushing his horse, and moved on to help Colette with hers. She didn't protest, which worried him more. Normally she'd give some sort of protest, usually that he probably had something better to do than deal with animals, but this time she was silent.

Once done with that, they went to the armory to drop off their gear. Levi looked at his with annoyance, wanting nothing more then to clean the blood off of it, but with a look at his apprentice he decided he had better things to do at this exact moment. Putting an arm around her shoulders, he guided her out of the room and down the hall, while she continued just staring at the floor with her monotone colored eyes.

Hanji's lab was on the same floor as the armory, so it wasn't a long walk. When they arrived, the researcher was watering some of the plants sitting in various places about the room.

"Oh, you're here. That's good. Colette can you go sit there until I'm done with this?" She asked, pointing to an examining table. Levi shook his head, why did she even have one of those?

The apprentice nodded, and did as told, somehow managing to hop up onto the table that was obviously made for someone taller. "You're here so I can take a look at your wings. Can you remove your cloak, please?" Colette did as asked, unclasping the cloak and handing it to Levi. Her chest and stomach were still covered by the bandages Levi tied earlier, but her wings were free, and she let them fall open limply.

Hanji walked over, pulling on a pair of gloves. "Can I?" She asked, holding her hands above Colette's left, black wing. With a nod, the researcher was given permission to gently examine the feathery appendage.

Levi sighed, and leaned against the wall. They were going to be here forever.

* * *

"Well..." Hanji said, pulling a glove off. "All I can say is it's a mutation."

"What?" Levi looked up.

"The wings, and the tail too, they're mutations. Actually, I wouldn't quite call it that, I think this is more than just an error in her genes. I think this is more like, a kind of evolution." Hanji explained.

"So you think humans have started to evolve into fairies." Levi stated flatly. Colette gave a half smirk at his unenthusiastic attitude.

"Well, think about it. They say creatures adapt to survive, and we've been plagued by the Titans for over a century. Doesn't it kind of make sense that we'd eventually start to adapt to survive without our Maneuver Gear?" Hanji explained. Levi had to admit, it sort of made sense, at least maybe a little. The researcher turned to Colette. "It doesn't make you any less human, though."

A few minutes later, and the two were walking down the hall again, away from the lab. Levi almost wanted to hug Hanji for that last comment, because Colette had brightened up a bit after that. She was more responsive now, at least, though her eyes were still completely monotone.

They were starting to near the mess hall, and by the sound of it, it was probably dinner time by now. Levi gave a faint "Tch." when he realized how long Hanji had kept them.

"I'm not hungry." Colette mumbled when they reached the door.

"Come on, we haven't had anything all day. You need food and you're not going to convince me otherwise." Levi said, pushing her into the room. "Here, go sit with your comrades."

"They hate meeeee." She whined.

"No they don't. Go." He insisted. "You need to talk to them."

Finally, she complied, and went to sit between Connie and Jean. Levi scanned the room, but didn't see Martin anywhere. He shook his head and went to join his team at their usual table, but was still close enough to hear the conversation around his apprentice.

"Hey Def." Armin was the first to greet her, without hesitance. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay." She answered, though Levi could tell she was lying. "Where is Martin?"

"We haven't seen him since we got back. He put his and Dave's horses up and vanished." Desmond said.

"Give him time, Dave was his twin after all." Jean said.

Connie nodded, and added, "I know if I had a sibling and lost them like that, I'd be the same way."

The conversation turned to unrelated topics that Levi didn't care much for after that, and he turned to his team. He spoke with them for a few minutes before something caught his attention at the other table again.

"Hey, you two actually look pretty similar." That had been Eren.

"Eh?" Colette and Connie both said at once, turning to look at each other in confusion.

"Oh I see what you mean, actually." Edward spoke up. "Nearly the same haircut, and normally the same eye color. Well, partially at least."

"Their faces look alike too." Mikasa added.

"Do you think we're related?" Connie asked, blinking.

"It's possible." Colette noted. "You're from Ragako, right?"

Connie nodded.

"My dad lived there for awhile, maybe there's a connection there." She said.

"Maybe."

After that, Colette left the room, and Levi followed her. She was waiting for him out in the hall. "Related, hmm?" He asked.

"Possibly." She said.

"What do you think of that?" They started walking to their rooms.

"I'm not sure." Colette admitted. "I've never had family other than my parents, and well, you know how they were."

Levi twitched at the mention of them, but didn't answer.

After a few minutes, they'd reached their rooms and Colette moved to go into hers. "Wait." Levi stopped her. She turned to look at him.

"What?"

"I'm sorry about Dave."

"It's fine." She mumbled. "I'm okay."

"I can still tell when you're lying." He reminded her. She huffed at him, but he could tell it wasn't negatively when she gave a soft smile afterward. He patted her head. "Go to bed, I think you need the rest."

* * *

_Colette looked around wildly, trying to figure out where she was. It seemed like she was just in a bluish, white void, bright enough to hurt her eyes._

_She looked down, and noticed she was wearing her regular uniform, with her wings and tail hidden and the well-known green cloak of the Survey Corps was around her shoulders. She gave a slightly disappointed sigh when she realized it was her cloak and not Levi's, though._

_"Wait, how did I get this back?" She whispered, remembering that she'd lost hers when she saved Hanji._

_Before she could think about it more, she heard a scream in the distance, and ran off in that direction by instinct. The void didn't seem like it was going to change, but right when she was about to give up the light suddenly changed to regular sunlight and she found herself standing on a rooftop._

_Colette froze when she spotted the scene in front of her. Dave was standing on the edge of a roof near her, looking off to their left, and when she followed his gaze she spotted an all-too familiar Titan standing quite far away but still in sight, and could just barely make out the shape of something with black and white wings flying up to it._

_"I hope you know what you're doing..." Dave whispered. "Please be careful."_

_The two stood there and watched as the winged figure cut the Titan's fingers loose and rescued someone from it, and a few moments later Martin killed that Titan while Levi jumped in and killed the injured one across from it before they could go after the winged figure and the rescued soldier, who had fallen to the ground and out of sight._

_Colette turned to look at Dave, just in time to see a Titan had walked up behind them and was reaching for him. She screamed his name, but he didn't seem to hear and was caught in the grinning monster's deathly grip, desperately struggling for his life._

* * *

Colette snapped awake, breathing heavily. She looked around, taking in the sight of the calm, cold room. There were no Titans, no blood splattered on walls, no danger.

And no Dave.

She pulled her legs to her chest and hid her face in her knees, sobbing. All she could think about was that the older twin was dead and if her dream was true, then it had been her fault. Martin's brother was dead and it was because of her.

After a few minutes of mentally beating herself up, she stood suddenly and walked across the room, trying to stop the tears trailing down her face but to no avail. She stopped beside a glass tank that was sitting on a dresser in the corner, and watched the tarantula inside as it casually moved about its knew home.

Dave had liked this spider. She remembered when they had tried to set it loose, and he went with her.

* * *

_"So you're not gonna keep him?" Dave asked her as they walked through the courtyard._

_"Well, Martin doesn't really like him and I doubt most anyone else will either. I don't really want to take him away from his home, too." Colette told him, heading toward the flowers she'd found the spider in._

_"Aww, I like him." He said._

_"I like him too." She agreed, kneeling down beside the flowers and holding the tarantula near the ground under them. "Come on little guy, time to go home."_

_The spider didn't budge. She poked at it gently with her free hand, but it refused to go back in the garden. Dave started laughing. "I think he likes you too, Def."_

_"Oh my god." She grumbled. "You really should go, buddy. I don't know if I can keep a pet."_

_Still, the spider refused to leave her hand. If she tried to turn her hand over, he just crawled to the other side of it, and whenever she tried to set him down he just climbed right back up._

_"I was going to ask if I could keep him instead, but I think he wants to stay with you." Dave pulled her to her feet. "You should keep him. Come on, let's go see if we can put together something you can keep him in."_

* * *

Dave had built the tank. He got a hold of some old glass panes and built a frame from wood, and Colette had sat nearby and watched, holding the tarantula it was for, as the twin worked.

Now, she just stared at it blankly. She'd spent almost all of the day before with him, and now he was gone. Just like that, taken from them and killed. Was this why Levi tried not to get close to people?

Levi. That's who she needed right now. She turned and was about to leave her room in search of him, but realized she was most likely just going to disturb him. It was quite late at night now, and annoying the corporal was never a good idea. With a shuddering breath, she went back to her bed instead, pulling the covers over her head and trying not to think.

An hour later, and she couldn't get back to sleep. The blankets felt too scratchy and her room was too cold, too empty. She sat up again, wings wrapped around herself, and debated whether or not she really should go disturb Levi.

Colette stood and left the room before she could convince herself not to again. She walked up to the door of the neighboring room, and knocked quietly, barely audible even in the silent hall. Even so, the room's occupant heard it and there was a faint "Come in." from inside.

She stepped in, and Levi looked up from the book in his hands. The candle next to him lit up his face as he squinted into the darkness of the rest of the room. "... Colette? Why are you up?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Came her snarky reply, but her voice was flat, devoid of any real feeling. "Do you ever sleep?"

"Hmm... Nah." Levi put his book aside. "What do you need?"

"I.. Er..." Colette was starting to regret coming in here, realizing just how stupid her reason was. "... I can't sleep?"

"You're thinking of Dave, aren't you?" Levi asked, his voice gentle. Colette nodded, and he gave her an understanding look. "Come here."

She stepped up to the side of his bed, tilting her head slightly in confusion. "What?"

"Sit." She did as he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, and he spoke up again. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I had a dream." She said simply. "I saw him die."

Levi was silent for a moment. "This is the first comrade you've ever lost, isn't it?"

"First person ever, really."

He watched her for a moment, expression unreadable, before sighing.

"... Sorry. I should-" Colette went to stand, but Levi caught her hand.

"You don't have to leave. Actually," He pulled her down with him suddenly. "You should probably stay here."

She squeaked in surprise, shivering. Instead of pulling away, though, she snuggled closer and buried her face in his chest, feeling in need of the company. Levi wrapped one arm around her and pulled the comforter over them both before speaking up again.

"I'm sorry I have to say this, but you'll have to get used to it. As soldiers, in this world, losing comrades is just part of our lives." He told her quietly. "It never gets any easier, but we can't change the fact we're in an era of war."

She started sobbing again. "It was my fault."

"What?" Levi asked, brushing her feathers comfortingly with his free hand.

"Dave died because of me." She said, voice barely above a whisper. "He saw me going after Hanji and got distracted, and that's when he got caught. I'm the reason Martin lost his twin, I just know it!"

Levi had started protesting halfway through her outburst, and by the end of it finally just pushed her onto her back and put a finger against her lips, effectively making her stop her rant. She stared up at him as he hovered over her, tears still shining in her monotone eyes.

"Stop." He whispered. "You couldn't have known what would happen. There was no way you could've predicted that he'd die when you saved someone else. Whether he really did die because he was distracted by you or not, that isn't your fault. I'm sorry, but honestly it was more his fault than yours if that's really the case."

"But.. Levi..." Tears were now running down either side of her face, and Levi leaned closer as he wiped them away gently.

"Do you regret saving Hanji?" He asked softly, staring straight into her eyes with a sharp look.

"No." She said, voice stronger than before since she was completely sure of her answer.

"Even though you think that's what caused Dave to die?" Colette shivered at the intense look in his eyes, it was similar to how Eren looked at times.

"I..." She wasn't sure how to answer that. Finally, she sighed. "As much as I cared for Dave, humanity needs Hanji. I don't regret saving her, even though-"

"Stop blaming yourself for Dave." Levi snapped. "You were nowhere near him. His death was caused by his own bad luck, not your choices."

"But-"

"I think you need to talk to Martin." He said. "Dave was still alive when they found him, and I'm sure he had something to say about you."

"... Okay." Colette agreed.

"Just stop blaming yourself, okay?" Levi laid back down on his side, and pulled her close. "I think the only way it would ever be your fault is if you stabbed him yourself, which you didn't."

She was silent for a few moments, before saying "Thank you, Levi."

"Go to sleep, Colette." He told her.

"Okay." She shifted slightly, wrapping her wings around them both under the comforter and relaxed against his chest, before quickly drifting into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

Levi awoke nearly at the same time he usually did, though a bit later than normal. That was probably because of how incredibly comfortable he was, his comforter protected him against the morning chill and the wings wrapped around him were a lot softer than he'd originally thought.

"So fluffy..." He murmured, gently running a hand along the white wing draped over his side. He really, really did not want to get up. Though, he knew he had to, so he carefully extricated himself from the tangle of fluffy wings that was Colette.

Managing to free himself without waking her, he looked down at her sleeping form. She looked a lot happier than the night before, probably feeling a lot better about Dave. Levi almost facepalmed, of course she hadn't been mad at him yesterday, she'd been mad at herself. He felt like an idiot for not realizing that at the time.

It only took him a minute to change into his uniform, though for now he skipped the jacket, and he forgot his cravat.

Levi looked back over at the sleeping apprentice. Since everyone knew about her wings now anyway, he really didn't want her tying them up again. The fact their growth had been stunted just because of that made it obvious that she shouldn't if she didn't have to, and Levi didn't even want to imagine what it felt like.

Deciding to do something about that instead of yelling at trainees or doing paperwork all morning, Levi left and went to her room to retrieve one of her uniforms. He returned back to his room immediately after, not wanting her to be alone when she woke up, and looked around for his sewing materials.

It was about an hour later when he finally heard her stir. Colette rolled over, and then sat up before stretching her wings and yawning. Then she caught sight of him and gave him a confused look.

"Um... Levi?" She blinked a few times.

"You're in my room, remember?" He said in a matter of fact way, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh." Was all she said. Then she stood up and walked over to him. "What are you doing?"

"Doing a little modification. Mind trying this on?" He asked, tossing her uniform at her.

She nodded, and changed her light yellow gown for the plain white clothes. It took a minute for her to figure out how to put the shirt on because of her wings, but after that she didn't have any trouble.

"Hmm, I like it. I'll have a jacket made by an actual tailor later." Levi noted, watching as her tail feathers dusted against the floor. "We'll have to have a custom harness made, too."

"Levi, you make it sound like I'm going to live." She mumbled, looking at the floor.

He immediately stood from the chair he'd been sitting in and crossed the room until he was standing right in front of her, before leaning down to whisper in her ear, "Because you're going to."

Her face turned pink. "But... They're probably going to execute me."

"Not if I've got any say in the matter." He gave her a look that said 'Anyone that tries otherwise is dead'.

She couldn't help but give a soft smile at his protective nature. Levi stepped away again, and removed a white scarf-like tie from a drawer before looking into a mirror and starting to tie it over his shirt collar.

"What's that?" Colette moved up behind him, watching his reflection curiously, and it was then he noticed that her eyes were back to their normal colors.

"This? It's a cravat." She just stared. "It's a kind of tie."

"I thought it was a handkerchief."

Levi snorted, trying not to laugh. "You've still got a lot to learn about the world."

Colette mockingly pouted at him, and he couldn't help but think she looked kind of like a bunny. And it was absolutely adorable.

* * *

**Well, not much to say here. Everyone was yelling at me for killing Dave sO I MADE IT BETTER WITH FLUFF**

**Also, yes, the shippers have convinced me. So have some shippy as hell fluff.**

**I don't eeeeeeven know what's going on with Levi here. First he's super in character, then he's being overwhelmed by adorableness. I guess that's what happens when you sleep in feathers.**

**OH YEAH AND I KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT BIOLOGY SO IF THE BIT ABOUT MUTATIONS AND EVOLUTION AND STUFF DOESN'T MAKE SENSE THEN THAT'S MY FAULT BECAUSE I AM NOT SMART**

**Also yes I'm hinting at Colette and Connie being related. Are they? Are they not? WE'LL SEE! Not in the next chapter though. Heh. Oh and yes this chapter has been basically pointless I literally just wanted to write fluff bECAUSE YOU PEOPLE MADE ME START SHIPPING IT UGHGHFGHTFJDHB**

**Review and I'll write faster yaaay. Thanks for all the reviews so far, too!**


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